tOOth anniversary of Marx's death •.• 9 THE Interview with revolutionary farmer 13 St. Patrick's Day parade • . • • 23

A SOCIALIST NEWSWEEKLY PUBLISHED IN THE INTERESTS, OF WORKING PEOPLE VOL. 47/NO. 10 MARCH 25, 1983 75CENTS U.S. pushes· Vietnam-type Grenada mobilizes 'pacification' of Salvador against BY HARRY RING President Reagan's decision to launch a Vietnam-style "rural pacification" program U.S. threat in El Salvador is an admission that the BY STEVE CLARK rebel forces there have the support of the ST. GEORGE'S, Grenada- Plans for people and cannot be defeated except by celebrating the fourth anniversary of the waging war against those people. March 13, 1979, revolution on this small According to U.S. and Salvadoran offi­ Caribbean island underwent an emergency cials, the plan is to "separate" the civilians change here this weekend. · from the guerrillas. Initial plans had projected no central, is­ The plan, they said March 12, is to send land-wide event, such as those that have heavy military forces into two provinces taken place the previous three years. In­ that are strongholds of the liberation stead, local rallies had been set for towns, forces, drive the guerrillas out, and then villages, and workplaces throughout the herd the remaining civilian population into country. police-controlled communities so the liber­ As Prime Minister Maurice Bishop ation fighters cannot return and reestablish explained at an evening rally here March their base among the people. 13, however, President Reagan took those According to one news account from plans out of the hands of the revolutionary San Salvador, military officials there see Grenadian government by levelling a seri­ this Vietnam rerun "as virtually a last-ditch ous threat to Grenada in a speech just two effort to reverse rebel momentum." U.S. ambassadorto EI Salvador, Deane Hinton, in Berlin, EI Salvador. Earlier this days earlier to the National Association of year government forces indiscriminately bombed Berlin after liberation fighters left One U.S. official there told reporters · Manufacturers. In that speech, Reagan explained his in­ city. Continued on Page 19 tention to increase military assistance to the Salvadoran dictatorship and to consider ex­ panding the number of U.S. military per­ sonnel aiding the counterrevolution in El Socialists win federal trial in L.A. Salvador's civil war. "I know a good many people wonder why we should care about whether Com­ after four-year disruption by courts munist governments come into power," Reagan said. "One columnist argued last BY DAVID FRANKEL swer sessions that SWP leaders had been tions against the SWP would have re­ week that we shouldn't care because their LOS ANGELES - One week after it required by the court to sit through- some mained so much hot air had it not been for products are not that vital to our economy." opened, the trial of the Socialist Workers 350 hours in all. that. As it was, the power of the courts en­ Continuing, Reagan said: 'That's like Party. in the U.S. District Court here ended The SWP was hauled into court by Alan abled the disruption operation to go for­ the argument of another so-called expert with Judge Mariana Pfaelzer saying she Gelfand, a Los Angeles County attorney ward. that we shouldn't worry about Castroite would rule in favor of the party. who has leveled the slanderous claim that control over the island of Grenada - their Pfaelzer's March 9 decision was a big the party is run by government agents. Gel­ Judge's role only important product is nutmeg. victory. But it came after a four-year-long fand, who was expelled from the SWP in "People who make these arguments 1979, asked that the capitalist court review In keeping alive Gelfand's suit, the haven't taken a good look at a map lately or disruption operation that cost the SWP judge· repeatedly turned down motions by hundreds of thousands of dollars and an in­ the principles and practices of a revolution­ followed the extraordinary build up of the SWP to throw the case out of court, al­ Soviet and Cuban military power in the re­ calculable drain on the time and energies of ary workers party and rule on whether though she herself admitted Gelfand had gion .... the party's central leadership. these were in keeping with the genuine traditions of the socialist movement! never presented a shred of evidence to back "It is not nutmeg that is at stake in the As David Epstein, attorney for the SWP, up his charges. Not only did Gelfand ask the capitalist Caribbean and Central America. It is the said in his closing argument, "The tragedy United States national security," Reagan court to determine who represents the ideas During the final arguments Pfaelzer de­ here is that no matter what the final deci­ clared, "All along the way I have defended continued. · · sion, it does not alleviate for one moment of socialism, he also demanded that it reinstate him in the SWP and remove the Mr. Gelfand's right to continue .... We the four years of harassment that my clients have gone along and reopened discovery No idle threat have been put through." elected party leadership from office. . . . even though I did not believe there At a late afternoon rally outside St. Epstein pointed to the table set aside for No less outrageous truin Gelfand's suit was anything to thls case. . . . the SWP legal team. It was piled high with was the agreement of Pfaelzer to hear his George's March 12, leaders of the Grena­ "And here we are now, after having the transcripts of pretrial question-and-an- case and rule on it. Gelfand's lying accusa- dian government and governing New Jewel spent all this time and money. I can only Movement explained the seriousness of assume that the only motive was to Reagan's threat. The rally had initially paralyze the SWP. If I had been presented been called as a ceremony officially open­ New stage in rights fight with one piece of evidence that , these ing the Sandino Housing Plant. The new people are agents of the United States gov­ factory, named for the Nicaraguan revolu­ ernment I wouldn't be so disturbed." tionary hero Augusto Cesar Sandino, will Federal Judge Marianna Pfaelzer's rul­ carried out this operation, the democratic turn out 500 new homes each year to up­ rights of all working people are in At this point John Burton, Gelfand's ing in favor of the Socialist Workers Party grade living standards for Grenadian work­ jeopardy. Gelfand's tactic of joining an or­ chief lawyer, complained, 'The court was in the suit brought by Alan Gelfand is a vic­ never misled about what this case was ers and farmers. tory for democratic rights - given that ganization, getting himself thrown out, and Jose L6pez Moreno, a member of the then disrupting the organization through about. You can look at each step- the in­ Pfaelzer allowed the four-year disruption terrogatories, the summary judgment brief, Continued on Page 17 campaign to continue right up through a such a suit can be used against the union movement, Black and Chicano rights or­ the trial brief - we told the court what costly trial. kind of case we were going to present." But the fight is not over. Building on the ganizations, women's rights groups, and momentum of this initial victory, we can any other progressive party or organiza­ tion. McCarthyite smears The federal government, through the It was Pfaelzer who gave the go-ahead court, allowed this disruption campaign to for the endless inquisition of SWP leaders EDITORIAL proceed. That Judge Pfaelzer carried the by Gelfand's lawyers. As she put it in case as far as she did was a blow to the con­ court, "I know there has been an abuse of now go on the offensive to beat back the stitutional right of freedom of association. discovery. . . . Probably it is still going whole attack on democratic rights this case By presuming to rule on whether Gelfand on, but I am not going to do anything about represents. should be reinserted in the SWP, the judge it. I am going to let it proceed." Judge Pfaelzer's finding that there was claimed the right to supervise the internal Pfaelzer also allowed Gelfand to fill the not "one shred of evidence" to back up functioning of the party. Under examina­ court record with innuendo and slander. At Gelfand's suit helps clarify that the purpose tion at the trial, SWP leaders Larry Seigle one point Burton tried to introduce into evi­ of Gelfand and his backers in the U.S. and Jack Barnes had to defend the organi­ dence a. section of the book Men Without Workers League and British Workers Rev­ zational rules and principles of the SWP, as Faces, by FBI informer and professional olutionary Party was solely to harass, dis­ well as the procedures followed by the liar and perjurer Louis Budenz. Budenz rupt, and bleed the SWP and to gather am­ party in expelling Gelfand, in front of a was a major figure in helping to get the munition for their slander campaign federal judge who claimed the right to rule McCarthyite witch-hunt going. His frame­ against the party. on these things. up accusations that leaders of the Com­ To the extent that Gelfand and his sup­ If unions, civil rights groups, working­ munist Party were Soviet agents helped set porters are allowed to get away with having Continued on Page 22 Continued on Page 4 Grenada Prime Minister Bishop -SELLING OUR PRESS AT THE PLANT GATE--:------BY MALIK MIAH participation. Although it hasn't each week. They usually sell zero Branches of the Socialist Work­ been what it should be, Gaige to two papers per team. But this ers Party have begun to assess noted, progress is being made. varies from plant to plant. Most their progress in organizing plant­ Furthermore, he added, "We industrial sites they sell at are gate sales of our press. The goal is thought it was important to start quite small - no more than 50 to involve each member of the with an approach of selling at the · workers. party each week in a team that reg­ plant gates from the point of view For example, at a shipyard they ularly sells at a specific industrial of getting out and doing it rather sell 5-7 papers per sale. And at site. than figuring everything out be- transit barns they sell 3-4 papers John Gaige, the SWP organizer forehand." · per sale. in Minneapolis-St. Paul reports Now that selling at plant gates is Zimmermann added that the that a discussion took place in more established, the branch has sales have made a big difference to their leadership and branch meet­ concluded that it needs to politi­ the branch. They've gotten to ings on progress in selling the Mil­ cally prioritize its sales more. For whole new areas of the city. "It's itant and Perspectiva Mundial at example, Minneapolis is a big rail been a big success for the branch." plant gates. The purpose of the center and the branch plans to re­ Mary Zins of Salt Lake City in­ discussion, he said, was to collec­ launch weekly rail yard sales. forms us that getting 100 percent ~ tively take responsibility for plant­ Gaige also said they discussed participation among SWP mem­ gate sales and move towards es­ getting out to plants where they bers has been easy, so far. She tablishing these sales as a norm of have socialist unionists working adds it's based on only four membership in the party. and to plants they've never sold at weeks' experience but that the He said their evaluation looked before. success is boosting confidence for at participation; establishment of the future. regular teams; plant locations to Organization sell at; and regularizing weekly Sales to miners sales. Other steps they are taking to improve plant-gate sales include The evaluation of plant-gate After eight weeks of plant-gate putting together a plant-gate infor­ sales by the Pittsburgh SWP noted c>> l sales, Gaige said, 92 papers have mation sheet with the size, shift the following: in selling the first Militant/Lou Howort been sold. This is an average of change, union, and other impor­ six issues of the 1983 Militant, the 11.5 papers sold per week. The tant information on it. They also branch sold roughly 300 papers; of very successful sales to rail work­ branch is organizing to follow up most common experience, he said, plan to centralize what they know those, 100 were sold to coal min­ ers and at the picket lines of strik­ on the sales. is that one or two people buy regu­ and work more closely with the ers in the area. ing United Auto Workers mem­ larly on each sale. "Some sales These, and similar experiences, jobs committee, which is responsi­ Betsy Farley, sales coordinator, bers at Caterpillar, there have been have higher results - for exam­ problems, and discussions are ble to help members get industrial added, "We're ready to take the problems getting the teams out ple, we sold 17 at a steel plant." what we're finding as we organize jobs, and to work more closely next step toward increasing the every week. A little less than half the branch to make weekly plant-gate sales a with the socialists already working numbers sold," based on this suc­ Maureen McDougall, SWP or­ membership has sold regularly. A permanent part of our political in industry. · cess. Although the branch is cur­ ganizer, reports that most mem­ few members have not yet been life. In San Francisco, Matilde rently petitioning to place socialist bers are excited about selling at out on a plant-gate sale. Zimmermann says progress is candidates on the ballot, Farley plant gates, but that in the begin­ Overall, after only 6-8 weeks said, the regular plant-gate teams of plant-gate sales more and more Increasing participation being steadily made. ning the teams were left to go out . She reports that everyone in the will be maintained. whenever they arranged to. With­ SWP branches are moving for­ One of the branch's main objec­ branch is now assigned to a team. In Denver, while members of out a regular, organized day or ward toward our goal of establish­ tives, Gaige added, is to raise the On average two thirds of the mem­ the SWP branch are signed up on time, many teams fell through. ing plant-gate sales as a norm of percentage of branch members' bers actually sell at plant gates sales teams, and while they've had Now the sales committee of the political activity. Miami cops kill Black, arrest Liberty City youth

MIAMI - Cops in Liberty City here cop March 4. The cop shot Harp in the and its allies, City Manager Howard Gary went on another rampage two nights in a chest. refused to grant the Klan a permit. Gary's row in the Black community March 13 and Blacks in the Overtown area rebelled in decision is strongly supported in the Black 14. Thirty-one Black youths were arrested December after a white cop killed 21-year­ community. the first night, 50 the second. old Nevel! Johnson at a video arcade. The city's two daily papers, however, Under mass pressure, four cops have been Their crime? Attending weekend street are campaigning for Gary to allow the Klan discos at African Square Park on Martin indicted for manslaughter by the county a permit, claiming it's a "free-speech" Luther King Jr. Boulevard. grand jury, including those who killed issue. Joining them in this, unfortunately, Anger against cops runs high here. At Johnson and Harp. is the American Civil Liberties Union. least five Blacks have been murdered by White cops have met to organize defense cops in the last six months. On March 13 for the two killers. The only thing the city has actually pre­ they also killed a Cuban in Little Havana. The Ku Klux Klan also held a demon­ vented from happening is an anti-Klan A woman who lives near African Square stration in the downtown business district meeting in the Black community. Park told reporters after the cop rampage, to support the killer cops. They have The meeting, ,called by the Ad Hoc "Things are so intense because of the announced a procop rally March 19 in Committee Against the Klan, was sched­ shootings going on. It makes people on Peacock Park, which is near a Black com­ uled for March 5. It was to include a film edge." munity. and discussion ·about the upcoming Klan The latest Black victim, 22-year-old Fearing that the Klan rally would trigger action. ButGary denied use of a city fac­ Donald Harp, was killed by a Dade County a militant protest by the Black community ility and ringed it with cops March 5. Miami cops during Overtown rebellion Read the truth every week The Militant Closin2 news date: March 16, 1983 Editors: CINDY JAQUITH Subscribe to the Militant DOUG JENNESS Business Manager: That way you'll get facts about Washington's bipartisan LEE MARTINDALE wars against working people at home and abroad: from El Editorial Staff: Connie Allen, Nelson Salvador to Lebanon; from unemployment to racism. Read Gonzalez, William Gottlieb, Arthur our proposals for how to stop U.S. intervention in Central Hughes, Margaret ·Jayko, George Johnson, Frank Lovell, Geoff America and how to fight back against the employers here Mirelowitz, Malik Miah, Harry Ring, and how to replace their system of exploitation and oppres­ Larry Seigle, Mary-Alice Waters. sion with a system that's in the interests of working people. Published weekly except two weeks in August, the last week of December, and At the plant gate, unemployment lines, and picket lines, the first week of January by the Militant the Militant is there, reporting the news and participating in (ISSN 0026-3885), 14 Charles Lane, the struggle. Subscribe today. New York, N.Y. 10014. Telephone: Editorial Office, (212) 243-6392; Busi­ 0 Enclosed is $3 for 12 weeks 0 Enclosed is $15 for 6 months ness Office, (212) 929-3486. Correspondence concerning sub­ 0 Enclosed is $24 for 1 year 0 Enclosed is a contribution scriptions or changes of address should be addressed to The Militant Business Name ______Office, 14 Charles Lane, New York, N.Y. 10014. Address _ _ ~------Second-class postage paid at New York, N.Y. POSTMASTER: Send ad­ City/State/Zip ------dress changes to The Militant, 14 Charles Lane, New York, N.Y. 10014. Subscrip­ Telephone ______~ ------tions: U.S. $24.00 a year, outside U.S. $30.00. By first-class mail: U.S., Union/Organization ------=------Canada, and Mexico: $60.00. Write for airmail rates to all other countries. Send to Militant, 14 Charles Lane, New York, N.Y. 10014 Signed articles by contributors do not necessarily represent the Militant's views. These are expressed in editorials.

2 The Militant March 25, 1983 Minn. unions hear Salvador labor leader BY FRANK FORRESTAL Electrical Workers Local 1139 spoke next. Real democracy will be won by the work­ AND JOHN GAIGE Alejandro Molina Lara was greeted by a ing class." ST. PAUL, Minn.- "In the six states I standing ovation. Molina Lara was confident that interna­ have toured, it is clear that our brother and "It is important for the American work­ tional solidarity can beat back the Reagan sister workers in the United States are be­ ing class to understand our roots," he said. administration. "In the past three years we ginning to move and wake up." That was "We have been fighting the dictatorship for have taught U.S. imperialism and the the conclusion that Alejandro Molina Lara, 50 years. The pro~lem is not Soviet or oligarchy a big lesson. They cannot defeat organizational secretary of FENASTRAS, Cuban expansionism. That is propaganda us because we are fighting for democracy, the National Federation of Salvadoran from the mouth of Reagan. freedom, and human rights." Workers, has drawn during his tour of the ''The real problem, the real threat," con­ Molina Lara was also confident that the United States. tinued Molina Lara, "is the U.S. multina­ Salvadoran workers will defeat Reagan's The urgency of Molina Lara's call for tionals that pay an average union wage of · refusal to negotiate. "We [i.e. working-class solidarity with the Salvado­ $2.50 a day, the 14 ruling families, and the FENASTRAS] have accepted the proposal ran workers and peasants was underscored 18 criminal military officers. for negotiations by the FMLN-FDR by the recent moves of the Reagan admin­ "It is a conflict between social classes. It [Farabundo Marti National Liberation istration to send more Gls and millions has nothing to do with the so-called East­ Front-Revolutionary Democratic Front] . more in military aid to El Salvador. West conflict. The real struggle involves Many governments around the world sup­ This major escalation and the pressing the five million workers and peasants port this 'dialogue.' Only Reagan and the need to stay the hand of U.S. imperialism · against the U.S. -backed dictatorship." Salvadoran dictatorship are against it." was the central theme of Molina Lara's Molina Lara then clarified why the Sal­ Molina Lara viewed the dialogue as part tour here. vadoran workers and peasants have taken of the struggle for democracy. "We need The ten-daY state-wide Minnesota tour, up arms against the government. democracy," said Molina Lara, "so we can organized by the Labor Task Force of the "We have tried peaceful means. We fight harder for our rights and continue our El Salvador Solidarity Committee, was have tried elections. But each time the rul­ struggle." jammed-tight with meetings. ing oligarchy has stolen the victory through Molina Lara ended by observing that the The heart of the tour was a series of fraud. United States working class "realizes that meetings with trade unienists which in­ "We would rather fight and die than repression exists here too. Their crimes cluded local meetings of the United Auto perish from malnutrition and h.unger," here are more sophisticated. Like their use Workers, Amalgamated Clothing and Tex­ explained Molina Lara. "The oligarchy is of legal repression in dissolving PATCO Militant/Linda Nordquist tile Workers Union, United Steelworkers, fighting to maintain its privileges, its [the air traffic controllers' union]. Alejandro Molina Lara spoke at 16 Brotherhood of Railway and Airline exploitation. . . . That is why our people "It's possible after El Salvador has been union meetings in Minnesota, including Clerks, International Association of support the revolutionary organizations. liberated that you, too, will free your­ one attended by more than 200 members Machinists, United Transportation Union, Power has to be taken from the oligarchy. selves of the big corporations." of Steelworkers Local 1938 in Virginia. Minnesota Federation of Teachers, Min­ nesota Education Association, American Federation of State, County, and Munici­ pal Employees, and the Coalition of Labor U.S. wolnen on ,·tact-finding Nicaragua tour Union Women. In addition, there were four public meet­ JANE HARRIS someone tell you to wait for heaven or retirement home the revolution has con­ ings sponsored by central labor councils in MANAGUA, Nicaragua - Interna­ something hereafter - not to struggle here structed. The night before their visit, San­ Minneapolis, Virginia, Duluth, and St. tional Women's Day, March 8, was celeb­ -it's really an insult." dinista television advertised that anyone Cloud. rated all over the country here. Young, who is the director of Southern who wanted to meet the women should In Virginia, Molina Lara spoke to over In Managua, 31 U.S. women from dif­ Rural Women's Network, plans to write come and have lunch there - on the 200 steelworkers at a meeting of Local ferent religious faiths and organizations and speak about Nicaragua when she re­ house. 1938 of the United Steelworkers, the were received as special guests by the turns. The women visited an AMNLAE sew­ largest steelworkers local in the state. Luisa Amanda Espinoza Association of Charlene Muir, of Church Women ing cooperative, a child-care center, and a On February 26, 215 people turned out Nicaraguan Women (AMNLAE). United in Oak Park, Illinois, was particu­ tobacco factory: for a labor-community rally at the The women planned to return after their· larly impressed by the meeting they had They traveled to Nicaragua's northern Machinist Labor Temple in St. Paul. The nine-day tour of the country and "transmit with Father Ernesto Cardenal, who headed border with Honduras and had an opportu­ rally was chaired by Bob Killeen, Sub-Re­ the truth," as Majorie Tuite, the group's or­ up the mammoth 1980 Literacy Crusade. nity to hear first-hand from the local resi­ gion 10 director of the United Auto Work­ ganizer, put it. The women met with former prostitutes dents of the counterrevolutionaries' acti­ ers (UAW) . Earlier in the week Molina The efforts of the U.S. ·women will also who described what their lives were like vities. Lara spoke before the UAW Region 10 be chaimeled into building the newly before the revolution offered them a new Tour participants felt they had their work CAP Council where a resolution was unan­ formed New York Women's Coalition perspective and productive work. cut out for them when they returned. imously adopted. Against U.S. Intervention in Central They met with prisoners, former ''I'm sure we 'II be accused of having ac­ Drafted as a letter from Killeen to Presi­ America and the Caribbean. Somozaist guardsmen, who under their cepted a propaganda tour. But I'm human. dent Reagan, it said in part: In Managua, the opening of a new legal own supervision and without guards work I come out of struggle. I know what I'm "Minnesota United Auto Workers join on a farm as an intermediary step before looking at," said Billy Jean Young. ''Our with Latin American and U.S. citizens, office to defend women's rights was celeb­ rated. There the Militant had the opportu: they are released. task is to take what we feel, with the facts, conscious of the situation that the labor They visited old-timers at a newly built and spread the word." leadership of National Union Federation of nity to speak with several members of the Salvadoran Workers (FENASTRAS), and visiting U .S. delegation. the Union of the Hydroelectric Executive All had one thing first and foremost on their minds - anger with the pope, who Commission of the Lempa River Boston campus meetings raise fu~ds (STECEL) are facing, and request you to visited here March 4. "He had the power to heal arid he press the Salvadoran Government for the wounded," said Sharon Andersen, from for University of El Salvador release as soon as possible of the union Church Women United's Grand Oak, leaders who have been jailed since August North Dakota, chapter. "It's difficult to un­ BY LOUIS JOSEPHSON Ulloa explained there the historic role 22, 1980. . . . . derstand." BOSTON - "The University of El Sal­ that the University of El Salvador has "The government of El Salvador is vio­ Andersen was referring to the pope's re­ vador refuses to die" was the message played in his country. lating the fundamental rights of union fusal to heed the pleas of the mothers of the brought by Felix Antonio Ulloa to hun­ Since its founding, the university has in­ members and their leadership, as stated by 17 Sandinista Youth members killed by dreds during his week-long tour of Boston. sisted on its autonomy. The deans are rec­ the INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZA­ TION OF LABOR (IOL), therefore, we U.S. -trained counterrevolutionaries and Ulloa was in the United States as part of tors of the school have always been buried only the day before the pope's visit. a campaign by the University of El Sal­ elected by the faculty - never appointed ask you to do your utmost, to have these The mothers and hundreds of thousands of vador to appeal for support for the fight for by the government. The university's inde­ union members released and returned to other participants at the pope's mass in academic .freedom. ·As part of this cam­ pendent status allowed it to become one of their families." John Massetti, secretary-treasurer of Managua had urged him to speak out in paign, the university has launched an inter­ the few places where ideas could be ex­ Lodge 143 of the International Association favor of the struggle for peace. national appeal for funds. pressed freely. It was this independence Ulloa, a representative of the university, that the dictatorship could not tolerate. of Machinists, was the first speaker at the Maijorie Tuite of Church Women spoke at five Boston-area colleges about Labor Temple meeting. United was appalled at the vast discrepancy Ulloa described how the university has the conditions under which the university continued to function, even after the gov­ He began: "I am honored that Molina between what her delegation had actually Lara has asked me to speak. I am horrified seen and the U.S. press coverage of Pope functions today. ernment takeover. "We have rented In 1980, the Salvadoran military took houses, taught in basements, and impro­ at the record of the U.S. government. I John Paul Il's visit. over the university, smashing classrooms, thought we had enough of this in Vietnam. vised as best we can in poor conditions." Several members of our group were right destroying books, and killing 50 members Let our voice become many and demand no The University still has 10,000 students up there on the stage and saw the mothers of the faculty and student body, including more military aid be sent to El Salvador." enrolled, which is only a third of its former plea for peace, Tuite said. "That was no fil­ Felix Ulloa, who was the rector of the uni­ · Carl Hoogenraad, president of United capacity. Despite all the problems, the uni­ tered information. That was reality, and versity and Felix Antonio Ulloa's father. versity graduated 1 ,648 professionals in that's what we're going back with. At Boston University, Ulloa spoke to an the last two years. This is especially signif­ "It's really heart breaking because we audience of over 150 at the invitation of the icant in a country where illiteracy is about are citizens of a country who would speak Boston University Committee in Solidarity 40 percent and where there are only two Protest U.S. aid to El Salvador democratic values. And the whole thing With the People of El Salvador. Also doctors for every 5,000 people. here is that the people of Nicaragua simply speaking was Martin Diskin, a professor of Hear: Maria Rivera, representative want to determine their own life. Now anthropology at the Massachusetts Institute Ulloa concluded his talks with an appeal: of the National Association of Sal­ what's so outrageous about that?" she of Technology, who had recently returned "I urge you to support the people of El Sal­ vadoran Educators (ANDES). Also asked. from a tour of El Salvador sponsored by the vador in their fight for a new and better so­ speaking: Ed Shanklin, international The pope's behavior made a deep impres­ Faculty Committee on Human Rights. ciety, and to support the university because representative, United Food and sion on Billie Jean Young of Jackson, At the University of Massachusetts in it is part of the people." Commercial Workers; representa­ Mississippi. "It reminded me of just how Boston, Ulloa's meeting was sponsored by His visit to Boston included meetings tives of NAACP, Southern Christian long it took Black ministers in the South to the Latin American Studies Department. with prominent academics such as Harvey Leadership Conference; others. come forward and help out in our struggle. The Harvard chapter of the National Cox from the Harvard Divinity School. Thursday, March 24, 8 p.m., It makes you wonder about the role of reli­ Lawyers Guild and the Harvard Committee Over $1 ,000 was raised in Boston for the Laborers Local 689 Union Hall, 400 gion. Here where religion is so intertwined on Central America sponsored a meeting at university project. Soniat, New Orleans, La. For more in people's lives, which is how it has been the Harvard Law School for Ulloa and Before leaving the United States, Ulloa information call (504) 523-5775. traditionally in Black people's lives- it's Francisco Campbell from the Nicaraguan also went to Philadelphia to win support been our only· hope. And then to have embassy in Washington. fromuniversities there.

March 25, 1983 The Militant 3 Socialists win federal trial in L.A. after four-year disruption by courts

Continued from front page ments- mainly from the police and FBI, Another point was repeatedly made by the stage for the Smith Act trials that sent but also some from the State Department Pfaelzer. All the testimony about Caldwell many to prison in the 1950s. - documents that were filled with lies; on and Hansen not only proved nothing about Budenz also smeared others on the left. the testimony of cops like Parisi and Gib­ them, but it was also irrelevant. In My Story, one of his books not intro­ bey; and on the output of informers such as "What you have to do is show that the duced as evidence by Gelfand, Budenz as­ Bud~nz. It was a cop case from beginning people who expelled Mr. Gelfand from the sures his readers that "Hitler used German to end. party were agents of the FBI, or CIA, or of Trotskyites as guards and encouraged them Gelfand and his attorneys made no at­ some government agency," she added. to persecute Catholics of the resistance tempt to prove the truthfulness of these The best that Gelfand could do in his at­ movement. That is the Trotskyite style~" documents, offering them as evidence only tempt to come up with something to show But Gelfand, who claims to represent the of Gelfand's "state of mind." Moreover, that the leaders of the SWP are agents of ideas of Trotskyism, had a particular use none of the documents contained any shred the U.S. government was a letter written for another one of Budenz's slanders. Gel­ of proof whatsoever that the leadership of by Doug Jenness, a coeditor of the Mili­ fand maintains that the agents who sup­ the SWP or· Joseph Hansen were govern­ tant, to the dean of students at Carleton posedly head the SWP today were helped ment agents. College during the early 1960s. The letter, into their places by Joseph Hansen, a written in compliance with campus regula­ leader of the party for 40 years. Hansen, The knowledgeable Mr. Budenz tions, informed the school administration according to Gelfand's noxious fantasy, The character of Gelfand's case came on behalf of the Student Peace Union (SPU), which Jenness was a member of at was originally an agent of the Soviet secret through with particular clarity around the that time, that the SPU was organizing an police who was later recruited by the FBI. frame-up of Sylvia Caldwell. The charge Where the connection with Budenz that Caldwell was an agent of the Soviet off-campus antiwar demonstration. comes in is that the witch-hunter had GPU (a forerunner of the KGB) frrst sur­ "What does that do?" asked the judge, picked up and publicized an FBI smear faced around _1947. SWP leader Larry looking at the letter. against a former SWP activist, Sylvia Seigle explained on the witness stand, "It is an example of Doug Jenness acting Caldwell (also known as Franklin). "The party treated it as it would any ac­ Attorney for SWP, David Epstein. as an informant," Burton replied. Caldwell was one of many people accused cusation from the FBI that someone was a by the FBI and its lapdogs of being a Soviet Soviet agent. They were coming fast and 'Not one shred of evidence' agent during the 1940s and '50s. She was ready known to Pfaelzer. They were Vin­ furious at that time." hounded and threatened by the FBI and But Burton was not about to give up. It w~ on the basis of such "proof' that cent Parisi and Ricky Gibbey, Los Angeles .Gelfand 's lawyer declared in his final argu­ courts for years. Gelfand takes the FBI­ cops who infiltrated the SWP and carried "Isn't it a fact," he asked SWP National Budenz smear for good coin and argues ment that "every allegation in his com­ out a spying and disruption operation Secretary Jack Barnes, "that Mr. Budenz that "Soviet agent" Caldwell was helped plaint has been established here in trial. against it. At that time, Pfaelzer was serv­ filed an affidavit before the House On­ into place by another "Soviet agent" - "Mr. Gelfand was forced to resort to a ing as president of the Los Angeles Police American Activities Committee, stating Hansen. , that Sylvia Franklen [Caldwell] was a GPU circumstantial case of great complexity, Commission and approv~d the police oper­ but each and every fact has been proved The Budenz book was offered as evi­ ations against the SWP. agent?" dence for this mishmash of foul slanders. here today." Parisi and Gibbey were offered, in ef­ "I wouldn't believe anything that Louis When the judge told Burton, "You've 'There's no limit' fect, as character witnesses for Gelfand. Budenz said," Barnes pointed out. been given countless thousands of hours to "During the frrst year or two of Mr. Gel­ Nevertheless, in his final argument Bur­ prove your case and you have not shown "Your honor," attorney Epstein ob­ fand's membership," Burton asked Gib­ ton cited the authority.-of "Mr. Budenz, one shred of evidence," Gelfand's lawyer jected, "surely there has to be some bey, "did he have a reputation as an out­ who everyone agreed had a great deal of, began to get upset. limit... ." standing member in the SWP?" knowledge about GPU actions in the His voice rising, pointing his finger at "No," the judge shot back. "There's no "Yes, he did," the cop hastened to reply. United States." Pfaelzer, Burton cried out, "You may not limit .. That's the way we're trying the "Through the entire time that you were Perhaps the thing that most impressed believe it, your honor, but the evidence is case." in the SWP, did you ever see him try to dis­ Gelfand's lawyer about the Sylvia there." Epstein tried again, "Your honor, here rupt the SWP?" Caldwell story was that, as he explained, we have an excerpt from a book about "No," Gibbey assured the court. "The U.S. government was convinced, at Gelfand cites J. Edgar Hoover somebody named Helen who we're sup­ least enough to name her as unindicted "Did you have the impression that Mr. A major issue in the case was Gelfand's posed to know is Franklin because of a let­ Gelfand was trying to act in the best in­ coconspirator" in a 1958 spy trial. ter written by the defendants. What's that Even in those days, however, the gov­ expulsion from the SWP in January 1979. terests of the party?" Burton continued. Gelfand maintained that this action had supposed to prove?" Pfaelzer, doubtless thinking of what the ernment was not willing to risk asking a "I don't know what it's supposed to jury to convict Caldwell. It makes one been taken by the "agents" in the SWP record would look like, broke in to say, leadership to silence him and that his rights prove," the judge replied. "The record is "Now how is an agent supposed to answer wonder what Burton thinks about the already so overburdened, I see no reason frame-up of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. as a member had been violated. The court a question like that?" had agreed to rule on whether the party had why not to admit more." Turning to Gibbey, however, she said, Not only did the government call them . Pfaelzer later admitted that "75 percent - Soviet spies, in their case it even staged a violated its "contract" with Gelfand . "Go ahead. You may answer the question." Gelfand's expulsion came about because of the evidence I let in, in this trial, is ir­ Gibbey replied, "Yes." Gelfand, as the trial and electrocuted the two martyrs. relevant and immaterial in my opinion." But no doubts about official government of his intervention into the fight that the cop saw it, was acting in the best interests· SWP was waging against the U.S. govern­ Using the pretext that she has hidden be­ of the SWP. documents have any place in the minds of hind all along, the judge claimed, "My Gelfand and his lawyers. "Today is a his­ ment and its. secret police. In June 1978 Griffin Bell had become the frrst U.S. at­ motivation here is to make sure that Mr. 'Just like a TV camera' toric day," Burton declared as he intro­ Gelfand had his day in court." duced a last-minute government document torney general ever to be cited for contempt With Pfaelzer's help, Gelfand had four In the weeks leading up to the trial, the he claimed was final proof that Sylvia of court. Bell had defied a court order to years in court. SWP publicized Pfaelzer' s previous re­ Caldwell was a Soviet agent. tum over informer files to the SWP' s sponsibility for police spying and disrup­ "It doesn't prove anything!" snapped the lawyers in the famous SWP lawsuit against Cops say Gelfand was OK tion against the party. During the trial itself judge. government spying and disruption. the debate over such police operations was Disclosure of the informer files, the gov­ During the trial itself, Pfaelzer let Gel­ making front~page headlines in Los Especially suspicious, in Burton's view, ernment argued, would endanger national fand's lawyers call whatever witnesses Angeles, fueled by new revelations about was the fact that the SWP defended Sylvia security because the SWP was supposedly they wanted to, despite objections from what the cops had been doing. Although Caldwell despite the fact that she left the in league with foreign powers. Further­ Epstein that their testimony was irrelevant. Pfaelzer refused to step down from the party in the late 1940s. "Why are they de­ more, the government claimed, disclosure Two of Gelfand's witnesses were al- case, as the SWP had demanded, the im­ fending her?" he asked in his fmal argu­ would endanger the lives of the informers pact of the public campaign was felt inside ment. "Nobody else wants to defend because the SWP was a violent organiza­ the courtroom. her. . . . The woman is obviously an tion.· During Burton's final argument, he said: agent." In December 1978, while appeals on this According to Burton's logic, only agents "You heard Mr. Gibbey say there was no­ issue were still being heard, Gelfand thing wrong with Mr. Gelfand's proce­ would want to defend a woman who has been tagged as a Soviet agent by authorities jumped in with his own legal document in dure." The judge interrupted. the case. He did this behind the back of the "Oh come now, Mr. Burton, Mr. Gib­ such as the knowledgeable Louis Budenz. SWP. His argument dovetailed com­ bey was a policeman. Rightly or wrongly pletely with those being raised by the gov- 'You have proved nothing' he was in there as a policeman. What kind ernment. . of weight do you want me to give to his tes­ By this time, the judge was interested in "How could it do that?" SWP attorney timony?" putting some distance between herself and Epstein asked Larry Seigle. Pfaelzer's "rightly or wrongly" speaks Gelfand and company. She pointed out that volumes. The former head of the police an alternative explanation for the actions of commission, who authorized Gibbey's ac­ the SWP leaders could be that "they're de­ tivities, was conceding that there was a voted to the party, they're loyal to Sylvia question after all about the propriety of Caldwell, they're loyal to Mr. Hansen, and such police spying and disruption. · they assume that all these charges have Burton answered by offering the same been laid to rest in the past." lie that the cops themselves do in seeking When Burton, in reply, referred to an to justify and defend their disruption prog­ earlier SWP motion to throw out the case rams against opponents of the government. without any trial, Pfaelzer snapped back: \ Denying that the purpose of the cops is to "That is exactly what should have been disrupt the groups they !afget, Burton said granted, the motion for summary judg­ of Gibbey: "He was an observer, he was ment. . . . I have given you your day in _( like a television camera that recorded these court and have asked you repeatedly how events." you intend to prove that these people are Militant This defense ofGibbey's infiltration into agents of the government. You have not Red Squad agent Ricky_Gibbey, star the SWP was not an exception. Gelfand's proved anything that you said you were Militant character witness for Gelfand. entire case was based on government docu- going to prove - nothing." Alan Gelfand gument, "This case was a studied attempt by Alan Gelfand to act in the most disrup­ tive and provocative way that he knew how, with the purpose of doing nothing but paralyzing the SWP." Gelfand, Epstein declared, "had no shame in putting forth every bit of energy in disrupting this party, and he is doing it to this day."

Believes in everyone's rights? For her part, Judge Pfaelzer had enabled Gelfand to carry out his disruption program against the SWP for four years without - as she herself repeatedly said-"one shred of evidence." Having taken the case as far as it could go, Pfaelzer turned around and tried to disassociate herself from Gelfand's malicious use of the court process. "I do believe in the constitutional rights of all the people who come in here," Pfaelzer insisted. Militant When Epstein was outlining the way that Gelfand's lawyer Burton questioning SWP leader Larry Seigle, whose testimony prov,ed SWP was correct in expelling disrupter Gelfand had used the courts to pursue the Gelfand, shown at far right. disruption campaign against the SWP, Pfaelzer broke in to say: "I agree with what you have just said. I think the lawsuit has "Well," Seigle replied, "first it accused Neither did the brief testimony of WL ment as defendants in the suit. But no de­ been harassment. I think in large measure Joe Hansen of being a Soviet agent. Joe member Jean Brust. positions were taken from government of­ that it was brought for reasons other than Hansen was a plaintiff [in the SWP's suit Brust's husband is a professor at Carle­ ficials. No real attempt was made to force getting Mr. Gelfand back into the party. I against the government]. ton College in Minnesota. Part of the the government to testify about the disrup­ am more confident of that than ever be­ "Second, it cited the letter by the liar J. WRP-WL argument is that Carleton Col­ tion programs it carries out. The suit was fore." Edgar Hoover that accused Joe Hansen of lege was the staging ground for the infiltra­ obviously aimed at the SWP, not at the Whatever one cares to think about murdering George Mink. . . . It fed right tion of government agents into the SWP. U.S. government. Pfaelzer's sincerity on the subject of con­ into the government's arguments." The proof? Jack Barnes, Larry Seigle, Two government lawyers sat silently at stitutional rights, her stance has opened up (One of the FBI documents that Gelfand Doug Jenness, and some other leaders of their own table through the entire trial. an opportunity to pursue the counteroffen­ thought was particularly useful for his case theSWP went to Carleton College. They did not question any witnesses. They sive against Gelfand and his collaborators. against Joe Hansen was a letter from J. "That is the most outrageous and ridicul­ did not present opening or closing argu­ In response to Epstein's request, the judge Edgar Hoover citing a report that Hansen ous thing that has ever been argued in this ments. Virtually the only role the govern­ set a hearing at which the SWP will be able had tied up one George Mink and thrown courtroom, what you're arguing now," the ment defendents played in the four-year to ask for lawyers' fees and the other costs him to his death in a volcano crater outside judge told Burton when he began on the history of the case was to defend what they of the case. of Mexico City. Mink, however, turned up "Carleton connection." call "informer privilege" - that is, the But the SWP is not just going to go after alive and well some months after Hoover's The only other witnesses called by Gel­ government's "right" to keep secret the Gelfand in this process; it is also going to letter. Also to be noted is the fact that Mink fand's lawyer were the two cops, who gave names of its informers. ask that the law firm that represented him was supposedly an agent of the GPU on his Gelfand a clean bill of health, for what it The government contended that for it to be held liable. Gelfand's lawyers con­ way to Mexico City to kill Leon Trotsky. was worth. Then Burton rested his case. say SWP leaders were not among its in­ tinued for years with a case they knew formers and agents would endanger nation­ lacked any foundation in fact whatsoever. But Gelfand's whole frame-up is based on There was simply nothing for the SWP al security! Judge Pfaelzer upheld this Insofar as the SWP is successful in mak­ the claim that Hansen was working for the defendents to answer. The court had view. ing Gelfand and company sorry that they GPU and was secretly conspiring to assas­ merely served as a sounding board for the While the government lawyers did not ever went to court, it will make other right­ sinate Trotsky. Apparently Gelfand's re­ same slanders that the WRP-WL have been play a very visible role, the interests of the ists less eager to try out this tactic against spect for J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI is far issuing for years. "The defendant SWP will capitalist government were quite ably unions, Black rights groups, or whatever greater than his powers of logic.) be presenting no defense," Epstein told the served by another of its representatives - progressive organization they would like to During the final arguments, the judge court. · Judge Pfaelzer. The kind of disruption pro­ get. The SWP never wanted this fight in noted, "If there ever have been grounds in gram that has been carried out in secret by court, but now that it has been confronted the history of the world for throwing a Government 'defendants' the FBI and CIA in the past was done out in with it, the party will carry it through to the party member out, it was in the brief that Aside from the SWP, Gelfand had also the open through the use of the courts. end in the interests of the entire working­ Mr. Gelfand filed .... named the FBI, CIA, and Justice Depart- As Epstein explained during his final ar- class movement. "I don't know what kind of political . party they would be if they hadn't thrown him out. They let him vilify the party ex­ tensively before they threw him out. "Come now, Mr. Burton, you read it. Do Funds needed as urgently as ever you think that brief was helpful to the party?" "Certainly," replied the counsel for the BY HARRY RING Also, PROF is involved in several other quin, who has been denied political asylum plaintiff. NEW YORK - With the court declara­ very important defense cases and was com­ here. He left his native Mexico where he tion that the Gelfand harassment suit pelled to divert resources from them to the was targeted for political persecution. against the Socialist Workers Party is to­ Gelfand suit. The Immigration and Naturalization Ser­ Behind Gelfand'~ suit tally devoid of merit, the Political Rights One such case is that of Hamid Sodeifi, vice ordered Marroquin deported because Gelfand's testimony had previously es­ Defense Fund (PROF) is pressing toward an Iranian .student facing deportation for of his declared Marxist views. The de­ tablished that his suit against the SWP was successful completion of the $75,000 his socialist views. portation order has been upheld by the conceived, organized, and financed in col­ Emergency Defense Fund initiated on the Another important, expensive fight is U.S. Court of Appeals. laboration with the British Workers Revo­ eve of the trial. Response to the fund con­ the PROF suit against Lockheed-Georgia The $I5,800 response at the ndly here lutionary Party (WRP) and the WRP' s sub­ tinues to be very impressive. on behalf of I4 workers fired by the giant underlines the recognition of those attend­ ordinates in the U.S. Workers League A wonderful example of this was the corporation on the basis of association with ing that the battles being fought by PROF (WL). These groups, which had previously PRDF rally held here March II, some 48 theSWP. are far from over and funds are still ur­ been marked by ultrasectarian politics, hours·after the judge declared Gelfand had And particularly urgent now is the fight gently needed. have carried out an eight-year campaign no case. to prevent deportation of Hector Marro­ You can register your agreement by clip­ accusing the SWP of being run by agents. Participants in the rally contributed and quin. PRDF is filing an appeal with the ping the coupon on this page and sending Their campaign against the SWP has be­ pledged a grand total of $I5,800 to the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of Marro- the committee your contribution. come the axis of their political activity. As fund . the character of the Gelfand suit dearly Earlier, on the eve of the trial, nearly showed, the evolution of this tendency has $7,000 was raised at a Los Angeles rally. placed it outside of the working-class And a mail appeal by PROF has brought movement. in more than $9,000 so far. 1119$75,000 Emergency The whole purpose of Gelfand's suit was The emergency fund, to be completed by to try to get more ammunition for the May I, was launched as the trial date ap­ WRP-WL slander campaign against the proached, to partially defray the heavy 1)]1 Defense Fund SWP. costs involved in such proceedings. "What is happening in this courtroom, "The $75,000 really was a bottom-line your honor, is very simple," Epstein noted figure," said PRDF national coordinator Enclosed is my contribution of$ ------in his final argument. "With every click of Holbrook Mahn. "The bills in this case run Name ______that stenographic machine, these plaintiffs a good deal higher." obtain more material to take out of context There are also continuing legal expenses Address ______and to use in the same irresponsible way as in the Gelfand case, Mahn explained. An they have up to now." immediate one is the court move by PRDF City------State----- Zip------Gelfand's own testimony, and the in­ attorneys seeking damages for malicious quisition of SWP leaders Jack Barnes and court action. This is an important step in Send contributions to PRDF, P.O. Box 649 Cooper Station, New York, N.Y. Larry Seigle, proved absolutely nothing discouraging further harassment suits of 10003. about the lying claims of the WRP-WL. this type.

March 25, 1983 The Militant 5 Atlanta rally .hits attacks on Blacks, unions,• socialists

BYANDYROSE ionized plant for their political beliefs - if ATLANTA - The call for a united de­ they're a socialist, if they're a communist, fense of workers' democratic rights was whatever their beliefs - is just as danger­ strongly voiced by southern union organiz­ ous as firing a worker for trying to organize ers and Black rights fighters in a March 12 a union," Raynor emphasized. rally here. "I hope the entire labor movement de­ The event - which drew some 150 cides to take up these issues, not to be af­ people from Georgia, Alabama, Kentucky, raid of them, and sees them as part of the Florida, and North Carolina - was spon­ larger problem of the corporations versus sored by the Political Rights Defense Fund the workers," the ACTWU leader con­ (PRDF) and American Federation of State, cluded. County and Municipal Employees Local 1644. Lockheed-Georgia case It was especially impressive that such a One of the cases Raynor was referring to broad array of speakers came together is the firing of 14 members of the Interna­ around several cases in which socialist tional Association of Machinists by Lock­ workers were victims of employer and gov­ heed-Georgia for their union activities and Crystal Lee Sutton, whose role in organizing textlle workers was portrayed in f"llm ernment attacks, including the Gelfand­ their socialist political beliefs. Garrett Norma Rae, addresses Atlanta rally. Pfaelzer trial of the Socialist Workers Brown, one of those fired, described the Party. In the South as well as elsewhere, "Watergate-style spy operation" against red-baiting is less and less effective in Mayor Eddie Carthan and the Tchula dom of association could be leveled at the union that led to their victimization. He isolating militant workers from support in Seven. He described how Carthan, who NBIPP or anyone else who stands up for appealed for support to a $3.4 million law­ the labor and civil rights movements. was elected mayor of the small Delta town justice, equality, and peace. suit filed against Lockheed by the 14 work­ Bruce Raynor, an international vice­ in 1977, was victimized by the banks, Barry Sheppard, one of the national ers. president of the Amalgamated Clothing media, police, and courts because of his ef­ chairpersons of the SWP, reported on the "What is at issue is the right of workers and Textile Workers Union (ACTWU), forts to provide jobs and improve condi­ just-concluded trial in the Gelfand-Pfaelzer to freedom of association and freedom of said his union is "no stranger to violations tions for the impoverished Black popula­ case. He said the outcome of the trial so far speech, and the right of unions to organize of workers' rights." In ACTWU's 17-year tion there. is "a victory, but a victory that we view free from government interference," campaign to organize the J.P. Stevens tex­ Although an impressive national defense with anger and with continued protests." Brown explained. . tile mills, he said, hundreds of workers campaign blocked Carthan's conviction on There was never a shred of evidence be­ Crystal Lee Sutton is the North Carolina were fired and blacklisted. a murder frame-up, he remains in prison on hind Gelfand's suit, and Judge Pfaelzer woman whose role in organizing J.P. Ste­ other trumped-up charges, and continued knew this from the beginning, Sheppard Raynor described the ineffectiveness of vens was portrayed in the movie Norma the courts and National Labor Relations support is needed. said. "This was a vicious, malicious use of Rae. In recounting her experiences to the Board in protecting workers from blatantly V ann's presentation was met with chants the courts to harm someone's rights. We rally, she especially noted how she had to illegal company victimizations. of "Free Eddie Carthan!" The rally also want to stop this from ever happening fight against company attempts to pit white "The discharging of somebody at a un- sent a telegram demanding his release from again, and stop it from happening to any workers against Blacks. prison. other organization." . "One of the most horrifying experiences James Orange is an ACTWU interna­ After Sheppard spoke a resolution was of my life," she said, was in 1973 when she tional representative assigned to the or­ read from Teamsters Local 391 in Political Rights was unjustly fired and thrown in jail. She ganizing department of the AFL-CIO in­ Greensboro, North Carolina - a large suddenly realized that the police operated dustrial union department. He spoke on the local that includes workers at many plants Defense rallies not according to the law but according to problems of unions organizing today, cit­ in that state (see below). the dictates of the mill bosses. ing media lies, hostile courts, the corporate Also speaking wete Laura Carnes, a WASHINGTON, D.C.- Friday, "It's time that working people take a New Orleans oil worker who told of her March 18, 7 p.m. Ethical Society, antilabor drive, and attempts to divide stand," she said. "People have hurt workers. fight against a firing based on sex discrimi­ 7750 16th St., NW. (Note new lo­ enough. And when we've had enough, nation, and AI Horsley, a Louisville Black cation and time.) Orange said he believes that "workers we're going to do something about it." have more fear today about losing their job activist and socialist facing frame-up The most spirited contingent present was [for joining a union] than people had in the charges of kidnapping and robbing a white BAY AREA - Saturday, March a group of some 20 Blacks who had driven '60s about joining the civil rights woman (see page 8). 19; reception 5:30 p.m., rally 7 early nearly two hours from Sandersville, Geor­ movement." "The only thing I'm guilty of is being a p.m. Bethel AME Church, 970 gia, to attend the rally. They have been in­ fighter," Horsely said, "a fighter for Black Laguna, San Francisco. Evelyn Newman, speaking· for the Na­ volved, together with Blacks in nearby tional Black Independent Political Party rights, for union rights, for housing rights, Wrightsville, in a long struggle against job (NBIPP), condemned court intervention _ for human rights." He summed up the BOSTON - Saturday, March 19; discrimination and police violence. theme of the entire evening when he said, reception 7 p.m., rally 8 p.m. into the Socialist Workers Party in the Gel­ fand-Pfaelzer case in Los Angeles. She "The only way we will solve our problems Church of the Covenant, 67 New­ Fight for Black rights is to join together." · bury. pointed out how similar assaults on free- Richard Turner, a Black farmer and CLEVELAND Saturday, executive board member of the Southern March 19; reception 7 p.m., rally Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), TeallJsters local blasts courts 8 p.m. Marshall School of Law spoke about their fight. He and others were (East 18th and Euclid). brutally beaten in April 1980 for holding a The following resolution was read at Whereas another example of these at­ demonstration to demand political rights the Atlanta Political Rights Defense tacks against the labor movement was the MORGANTOWN - Saturday, and the hiring of Blacks in Wrightsville Fund rally. It was adopted at a member­ government's spying on, arresting and jail­ March 19, 8 p.m. Potter's Cellar, stores. The racist mob that attacked him ship meeting of Teamsters Local 391 in ing of P ATCO members and the eventual 1481 University Ave. was led by Sheriff Roland Attaway. Greensboro, North Carolina, by a vote crushing of the air traffic controllers union, An all-white jury recently threw out a of74-36. and PITTSBURGH Saturday, lawsuit filed against Attaway and other of­ Whereas another example of this attack March 19; reception 7 p.m.; rally, ficials demanding their removal from of­ Whereas the recent trial and conviction on democratic and political rights is taking 8 p.m. Soldiers and Sailors Hall, fice and financial compensation for their of International Brotherhood of Teamsters' place today in U.S. District Court in Los Fifth Ave. and Bigelow, Oakland. victims. President Roy Williams represents an attack Angeles where at issue is the basic consti­ In a fiery speech, Turner expressed the against all Teamsters and the entire labor tutional question: can a U.S. court dictate SEA TILE - Saturday, March determination of Wrightsville and San­ movement, and membership policies and interfere in the 19; reception 7 p.m., rally 8 p.m. dersville Blacks to continue their fight de­ Whereas the government assembled the political activities of voluntary political or­ KAMP Firehouse, 722 18th Ave. spite this legal setback. "I'd rather be so-called evidence against Williams by ganizations or trade unions, and beaten than see my brothers and s.isters producing more than 2,500 reels of re­ Whereas the trial is a violation of the MILWAUKEE- Sunday, March come up in slavery," he said. "We will corded conversations produced by 30 FBI First Amendment rights of the American 20, 7 p.m. Cross Lutheran never be the same." agents who spent 14 months listening to people to band together in free political as­ Church, 1821 N. 16th St. Fred Taylor is director of chapters and more than 400,000 conversations, and sociations, trade unions or other organiza­ affiliates for SCLC. He told the rally that tions formed to advance the interests of Whereas this was reported to be the most LOUISVILLE - Friday, March SCLC is calling a national march in working people without fear of govern­ 25, 7 p.m. Manly Community Wrightsville April 9, the third anniversary extensive government wiretapping in the ment intrusion and interference. history of electronic surveillance, and Center, 7th and kentucky. of the attack on Turner and others. Therefore, be it resolved that Local 391 Whereas the publicity given to the use of Taylor led the crowd in chanting, "Fired of the International Brotherhood of Team­ illegal spying in this trial is designed to fur­ DALLAS - Saturday, March 26, up!" "Ronald Reagan, he's no good, send sters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and ther legitimize the government's right to . 7 p.m. Martin Luther King Center him back to Hollywood," and "A people Helpers of America strongly opposes the Library, 2922 M.L.K. Blvd. united will never be defeated," and in sing­ spy on whomever it pleases, whenever it grave violation of the First Amendment wants to, and ing, "Ain't gonna let nobody tum me rights of all Americans reflected in the trial MINNEAPOLIS-ST. PAUL - round." Whereas this attack fits in with a stepped taking place today in Los Angeles and Saturday, March 26; refreshments "It is unfortunate but real," he up government effort to spy on, harass, urges all supporters of the First Amend­ 6 p.m., dinner 7 p.m., rally 8 p.m. explained, "that freedom is not free." Part weaken and smear the labor movement to­ ment to support the efforts of the Political St. Paul Labor Center, 411 Main of the ongoing struggle is "to be in court day, and Rights Defense Fund to defend the Bill of St., St. Paul. time and time again to protect our rights," Whereas Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) Rights from government and court attack; and that costs a lot of money. Taylor's ap­ recently announced plans to launch a Se­ and furthermore, condemns the govern­ CINCINNATI - Sunday, March peal for contributions to PRDF netted a nate. investigation into the internal life of mental attack against the International 27, 4 p.m. Union Terminal Au­ collection and pledges of $1,530. the Teamsters, Steelworkers and Mine Brotherhood of Teamsters through the con­ ditorium. General Vann from Tchula, Mississippi, Workers unions on the pretext of investi­ viction and jailing of our President, Roy spoke for the National Campaign to Free gating "subversives" in these unions, and Williams.

6 The Militant March 25, 1983 N.Y. rally protests court disruption of SWP

BY STEVE WATTENMAKER NEW YORK -A crowd of 300 people rallied here March II to protest the trial of the Socialist Workers Party in federal court in Los Angeles. The gathering quickly be­ carne a spirited celebration when SWP cochairperson Barry Sheppard brought the news that the party had just won a clear-cut victory in the case. Thanks to protests that "people like you helped to organize," Sheppard told the cheering audience, "the judge said she would rule in favor of the Socialist Work­ ers Party." The rally was organized and sponsored by the Political Rights Defense Fund. Karen Newton, a Teamster at the Exxon re­ finery in Linden, New Jersey, chaired. Sheppard was joined on the platform by an array of speakers reporting on their own continuing battles against government vic­ . Militant/Lou·Howort timization. Among them were George Har­ At podium, Muntu Matsimela of National Black Independent Political Party. Seated: Kitty Tpcker, Supporters of Silkwood; rison, an Irish solidarity activist recently Harry Ring of the Militant; Irish freedom fighter George Harrison; David McLaurin, Tchula 7. At right, socialist Hector Mar- acquitted on charges of running guns to the roquin, who told meeting of U.S. move to deport him. · Irish Republican Army, and David McLaurin, a defendant along with former Mayor Eddie Carthan in a frame-up of the Hector Marroquin, a Mexican-born sored by the Political Rights Defense Fund, series ofcharges ranging from simple as- Black leadership in Tchula, Mississippi. socialist who is fighting for asylum in the is being appealed to the Supreme Court. sault to murder. · Kitty Tucker, president of Supporters of UnitedStates, underscored the importance Growing labor support for the right of "They had it lined up for him," Silkwood, told of progress in uncovering of continuing to fight against government the SWP to function free of government McLaurin said. "They said, 'if we don't the truth behind the 1974 murder of union persecution. Marroquin fled to the United harassment was evident in the number of get you on one count, we'll get you on activist Karen Silkwood, who had tried to States nine years ago after being framed-up solidarity messages sent to the rally from another.'" Althpugh Carthan was acquit­ expose nuclear hazards on the job. Tucker and targeted for assassination by the Mexi­ figures in the trade union movement {see ted of the most serious charges, he is serv­ revealed recent FBI attempts to smear can police. His appeal for asylum was re­ below). ing three years in Mississippi's maximum Silkwood's union- the Oil, Chemical and jected recently by a federal appeals court. security prison for simple assault. David McLaurin is a leader of the Na­ Atomic Workers - with responsibility for "Throughout the years we've proved tional Committee to Free Eddie Carthan her murder. beyond a doubt that I was a victim of polit­ George Harrison told the crowd the goal and the Tchula 7. Greeted with a standing A leader of the National Black Indepen­ ical frame-up," Marroquin told the rally. of Reagan's escalating attacks on the Irish ovation, he described the election of dent Political Party, Muntu Matsimela, re­ "Not only did we prove the false and independence movement was to "intimi­ outrageous character of the charges, we Carthan as mayor of Tchula, a town that is date, terrorize, and demoralize" all Irish counted the FBI's bloody history of at­ 80 percent Black. It is the I Oth poorest tempts to behead the Black rights struggle were able to prove the involvement of the freedom activists. town in the United States. · - from raids on the Black Panther Party to American FBI in Mexico in this victimiza­ That, he said, "corresponds to the at­ the assassinations of Malcolm X and Mar­ tion. In my FBI files, which we obtained Carthan and a majority-Black town tacks on all supporters of all national liber­ tin Luther King, Jr. through the Freedom of Information Act, board began making changes, trying to ation groups here in Amefica and to all po­ A collection to help offset the enormous the FBI singles me out as a "procom­ help people, he said. But the wealthy white litical parties who wish to achieve social costs of the SWP trial raised an impressive munist" student way back in 1968 -when merchants and plantation owners said no. change. That's how it appears to me, so the $15,800 in pledges. Harry Ring, veteran I was 15 years old!" Since 1977 Carthan and other Black lead­ victory of the Socialist Workers Party is a Militant staff writer, made the appeal for Marroquin's case, which is also spon- ers in Tchula have been framed-up on a very, very important victory, indeed." funds . Sheppard, who gave an eyewitness ac­ count of the trial, cautioned in his remarks that "in celebration we must not lose sight that we have a lot to be angry about, and a Messages fro01 unionists, antiwar figures lot to protest tonight, and a lot to con,tinue to organize around this case." The following are excerpts from mes­ tilities as we are now in El Salvador. We NQw that the SWP has successfully de­ sages sent to the March 11 Political must never allow President Reagan to in­ fended itself from a major disruption cam­ Rights Defense Fund rally in New York crease financial aid or military advisors. paign orchestrated by the courts and the City. Organizations are listed for iden­ government, he said, the party is going on tification purposes only. Mark Banks the offensive. Sheppard announced that the American Indian Movement, brother of SWP would take court action against the David Dyson Dennis Banks instigators of the suit, Alan Gelfand and his national staff representative, Amalga­ lawyers, for their deliberate use of the The American Indian Movement knows mated Clothing and Textile Workers all too well the history of the FBI's harass­ court for the sole purpose of disrupting the Union; secretary to National Labor SWP and draining it financially. ment of Indian people. This harassment has Committee in Support of Democracy been specifically directed toward the AIM The action will be aimed in part at recov­ and Human Rights in El Salvador leadership. ering some of the money spent on the case. As a trade unionist, I am concerned The case of Dennis Banks is a case in But he was quick to add that the goal · in about the right of unions to function free of point. For over 10 years the FBI has at­ continuing to "fight this case through" is government influence. Without that right, Militant/Lou Howort tempted to have Banks jailed on numerous "to do everything we can to punish those unions caimot effectively promote the in­ Ernesto Jofre trumped-up charges. The truth is that Den7 who do things like this to the workers terests of their members. nis Banks is a highly visible force in expos­ movement. As one of the growing number of critics ing government corruption and its miscon­ "If we continue to fight, we may be able of the policies of the Reagan administration Michael Harrington duct in dealing with Indian people. to put a crimp in other people's plans who ·in El Salvador, I want to be sure there will national chairperson, The pattern is clear- whenever an indi­ want to do the same thing to us or to any be no interference with our right to freely Democratic Socialists of America vidual.or group speaks out against a repres­ other group," Sheppard explained. argue the issue. The right of voluntary organizations to sive government, the FBI deems it their re­ For these reasons, I join with other un­ conduct their affairs free of regulation or sponsibility to quash dissident voices in ionists in protesting the attempt of a federal interference by the courts and other agen­ this so-called free society. Cincinnati rally judge to intervene in determining the inter­ cies of the government is basic to a demo­ nal life and leadership of the Socialist New Alliance Party to hear AFL-CIO cratic society. Workers Party, a right that should be re­ We have stood up for that right for Sol­ The courtshave no right to tell a work­ official served for its members. idamosc and KOR in Poland, and we cer­ ing-class organization who to have as tainly can demand no less for the Socialist members or leadership. CINCINNATI - A number of promi­ Ernesto J ofre Workers Party in our own country. We deplore the use of the court and the nent figures, including William P. To the extent that the judiciary in Gel­ ruling-class system of justice against pro­ Sheehan, secretary-treasurer of the Cincin­ chairman, Chilean Trade Unionists in Exile; representative Local 169 Amalga­ fand v. Smith have invaded, or threaten to gressive organizations and fully support nati AFL-CIO Labor Council, will speak at invade this right, I protest and oppose that the dismissal of the lawsuit. the Political Rights Defense Fund rally mated Clothing and Textile Workers Union invasion. here. Bill Henning, Jr. The meeting, which will be held Sun­ Under the guise of safeguarding "na­ Sullivan Family second vice-president day, March 27 at 4 p.m. in Union Termi­ tional security interests," the U.S. State nal, will also hear Margie Robertson, · Department recently denied a visa to Hor­ John Sullivan, a U.S. journalist, was Locall180, Communication Workers of America executive director of the American Civil tensia Bussi de Allende, widow of Chilean murdered shortly after he arrived in El Salvador in 1980. Liberties Union; Art Slater, executive di­ President Salvador Allende who was slain I support the right of the Socialist Work­ rector of the NAACP; AI Horsley, Louis­ in the U.S.-engineered coup in 1973 . The government of the United States is ers Party and all voluntary associations to ville Black activist framed on a kidnapping Like Judge Mariana Pfaelzer's conduct engaged in legal maneuvers that, if suc­ have their own organizational integrity. As charge; Rev. Dan Buford of the Black in the case of Gelfand v. Smith, this is a cessful, could duplicate the invasion of pri­ a trade unionist, I am particularly con­ Campus Ministries; Charles Graves of the fundamental challenge to the First Amend­ vacy so prevalent in past decades. To again cerned over this interference by the govern­ National Black Independent Political ment rights of everyone in the United permit the law enforcement establishment ment. I would liken it to management at­ Party; and Ann Mitchell of Planned Parent­ States. to spy on citizens would be a true travesty tempting to mediate an internal union dis­ hood. On behalf of Chilean Trade Unionists in of justice. pute or claiming jurisdiction over who Prof. Morris Starsky, who was a central Exile, I strongly protest the U.S. courts' It does, however, point up a trend in the should be a shop steward. figure in a 1970s academic freedom fight, violation of the Socialist Workers Party's current administration that is both alarming If the First Amendment has any mean­ will speak for the Political Rights Defense constitutional right to run their own organi­ and calculated. Not since Vietnam have we ing, this travesty must be fought by all Fund. zation without government interference. been on the brink of participatory hos- Americans who cherish democracy.

March 25, 1983 The Militant 7 -AN INJURY TO ONE IS AN INJURY TO ALL------

This week we are initiating a that copies of other protest mes­ jail with candles. Imprisoned there drunkenness" and "obstructing an new column, "An injury to one sages have been received from are Puerto Rican activists Ricarte officer." is an injury to aU," to enable the Birmingham; Cleveland; Indiana­ Montes, Alberto de Jesus Berrios, Mitchell is executive secretary Militant to increase our cover­ polis; Phoenix; Newport News, and Raymond Soto, and Black ac­ of the National Alliance Against age of important fights being Virginia; and other cities. tivists Silvia Baraldini and Shelley Racist and Political Repression waged for democratic rights. If Earl Keihl, senior director of Miller. (NAARPR). there is a case of police frame­ United Furniture Workers District They have not been charged Mitchell, who is Black, and up, an attack on union rights, or 4, has also sent a protest message. with any crime, but for refusing to Welch, who is white, were haras­ other victimization of political Horsley is currently free on a testify before a grand jury, an in­ sed by an attendant on an AM­ activists in your area, drop us a $20,000 property bond raised by stitution that denies them the right TRAK train returning to New short note. the defense committee. His trial to have a lawyer present and York from an NAARPR confer­ has been scheduled for June 13. whose sole function in this case is ence in New Orleans. The defense committee is ask­ to victimize political activists. They were physically assaulted Nat'l protest ing that letters or telegrams de­ The government can jail some­ and dragged off the train by two manding that the charges against one for refusing to testify before a white cops. over frame-up Horsley be dropped be sent to: grand jury for up to I8 months, the The prosecutor in the case made David Armstrong, Common­ legal duration of grand juries. But clear its political character. Mitch­ in Louisville wealth Attorney, Hall of Justice, once this term is ended, the pro­ ell and Welch "are used to civilian BY CHUCK PETRIN AI Horsley 600 W . Jefferson, Louisville, Ky. secutor can call a new jury and ex­ disobedience," he said. LOUISVILLE - Messages 40202. Send copies to the defense tend the sentence another I8 Mitchell and Welch have also protesting the victimization of AI committee. months. filed a suit against the National Horsley have begun pouring into Committee. Among .the local en­ For copies of fact sheets, peti­ Five Latinos - Marfa Cueto, Railway Corporation and South­ the state prosecutor's office here dorsers of the committee are An.ne tions, and other information con­ Steven Guerra, Ricardo Romero, ern Railway System, charging from around the country. Braden; Kentucky -chapter of the tact: AI Horsley Defense Commit­ Julio Rosado, and Andres Rosado them with battery, false arrest and "The Baltimore branch of the Southern Christian Leadership tee, P.O. Box 748, Louisville, - were found guilty of criminal imprisonment, intentional inflic­ National Association for the Ad­ Conference; Kentucky Alliance Ky. 40201. contempt by a jury in February. tion of emotional distress, breach vancement of Colored People Against Racist and Political Rep­ They face far longer sentences. of contract, and civil conspiracy. (NAACP) demands that the frame­ ression; Rev. William Hollis Bell; A demonstration has been They seek $1 million in com­ up charges against AI Horsley be United Black Protective Parents; Grand jury called for the day of their sentenc­ pensatory damages, $1 million in immediately dropped," writes Maury Granger, president of the ing, April 8, at the Federal Court punitive damages, plus costs. Enolia McMillan, president of the University of Louisville Black harassment in Brooklyn (Cadman Plaza) at 9 Compiled by _organization. Student Union; Rev. James Eliott; denounced a.m. George Johnson "He is the victim of a racist, Abdul Quahar, American Muslim The next vigil at the Metropoli­ politically inspired frame-up. The Mission; Young Socialist Al­ BY ARTEMIO CAMACHO tan Correctional Center, which is police have been aware of and liance; Socialist Workers Party; NEW YORK CITY- Chant­ at 150 Park Row in Manhattan, is have harassed him for years· be­ and Rev_ Isaac Shoulders. ing "Grand Jury, FBI; U.S. Justice March 26 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. cause of his political, civil, and The Cincinnati chapter of the is a lie," some 200 demonstrators housing rights activities. By pin­ National Black Independent Polit­ rallied in front of the Metropolitan ning bogus criminal charges on ical Party has branded the attack Correctional Center here February Horsley and demanding that he be on Horsley as a clear-cut political 26. Civil rights put behind bars, the government frame-up. "History tells us we are The action was called by the activists appeal aims to silence him and intimidate in the year I983," the chapter National Committee to Free the others." writes in a February 9 letter, "but Puerto Rican Prisoners of War, Georgia verdict Horsley, a long-time union and actions of the criminal justice sys­ which holds picket lines and civil rights activist and a member tem have regressed back to the candlelight vigils here the 26th of Two civil rights activists who of the Young Socialist Alliance, year I903 .... Our perspective every month to protest the jailing were framed up in Gainesville, was arrested January 8 and is one of total injustice. A clear in­ of Puerto Rican independence Georgia, last March 26 are appeal­ charged with kidnapping and rob­ dication of silencing once again a fighters and other activists who re­ ing the trial and verdict in Atlanta. bery. He faces up to 40 years in Black leader, who is a threat to so­ fuse to testify before the grand They are Charlene Mitchell and prison for crimes he did not com­ ciety. We have seen this happen jury. her husband, Michael Welch, who mit. 10ver and over again, and we are Protected by more than I 0 were fined $305 each and given Support for his case is being or­ aware why this is happening." police cars and cops on foot, the It-month suspended sentences on Militant/Diane Wang ganized by the AI Horsley Defense The defense committee reports demonstrators marched around the trumped-up charges of "public Charlene Mitchell Racist gets off light in murder of transit worker

BY MARK FRIEDMAN panic when Brooklyn is 50 percent minor­ worker who called in recounted three. dec­ tend to kill them with the pipes, bottle, and NEW YORK-"The verdict is outrage­ ity." ades of racist violence in the Gravesend sticks they used, then I don't know what ous. It is the lesser of all the charges sub­ Throughout the course of the six-day area of Brooklyn where the murder took intentional is." mitted to the jury for consideration. The trial, scores of transit workers, antiracist place. Dennis Dixon is helping to organize a evidence sustained a murder charge, sec­ activists, and friends and family of Turks The response to the decision by Dixon's pressure campaign on the district attorney ond degree. and Dixon, attended the trial. Organiza­ coworkers, white, Black and Latino, was to make sure Bova gets the longest possible "People have to take to the streets to get tions like the Black United Front, National also angry. sentence under the jury's conviction. He is the district attorney to do anything. Only Black Independent Political Party, and the "This is a whitewash .. . . It's what I planning more press interviews as prepara­ four of a possible 20 thugs were indicted Socialist Workers Party got their members expected," said one Latino. "I've never tions are under way for the trials of three of . . . the judge was trying to provide for and supporters to come to the courtroom. seen a white man convicted of murdering a the other thugs. Support efforts are intensi­ every possible out for Bova. Officials of the Transport Workers Union Black with the exception of Martin Luther fying within the transitunion, and among also attended. King. There is no justice in this country," other labor unions and civil rights groups. "It is a signal to the white community Bova was constantly surrounded by his said an older Black worker. A middle-aged (See accompanying article for more de­ that they can get away with stomping Black family and heavy security. Occasionally a white electrician in outrage said, "I could tails.) people to death." priest would join his entourage. not believe that they allowed an all-white This is how National Council of Black jury like that with no Blacks to hear this Mark Friedman is a member of Transport Lawyers member Alton Maddox referred In his summary, prosecuting attorney Andrew Plump characterized the incident· case. As for the outcome, second degree Workers Union Local 100 and is a co­ to the d~cision to acquit Gino Bova of sec­ manslaughter is not right. If they didn't in- worker of Dennis Dixon. ond-~gree murder charges in the brutal ra­ as a "race riot." Bova's lawyer, Paul Cal­ cist killing ofWillie Turks. lan, argued that the whites were acting in Turks and two coworkers, Dennis Dixon self-defense, that they were attacked by the and Donald Cooper, were attacked by a transit workers. Bova, he said, was merely N. Y. rally for justice set mob of white racists in Brooklyn last sum­ "defending his family, girlfriend, and his community." mer. All three belonged to the Transport BY ANDY TOWBIN chanic who attended the first day of Bova' s Workers Union (TWU) Local 100. After the jury announced the verdict Bo­ va's attorney told the press, "I am very NEW YORK - Transit workers and trial. A union delegate said, "This could Bova and the three other defendants are Black rights activists met in Harlem March happen to any one of us." all being tried separately. Bova's trial was happy with the decision." Willie Turks' 19 to plan a rally for justice for Willie first. mother, Ms. Lee, passed out and required Six workers from the 239th Street barn, Turks to be held April 9. The jury of eleven whites, one Latina, emergency oxygen. eight workers from other barns, and two The Committee for Justice for Willie and zero Blacks brought in the verdict on Transport Workers Union officials went to But the response from the Black commu­ Turks, headed by Rev. Ben Chavis of the March 8 after three days of testimony. the courthouse for the last day of the trial. nity was swift, clear, and angry. "The ver­ United Church of Christ and the National Bova was convicted of second-degree dict is a downright shame. . . . It is dis­ Black Independent Political Party, called Dennis Dixon, who was also beaten in manslaughter as well as first-degree as­ the racist attac'k, reported on the trial that gusting. . . . Had it been a white man for the April 9 rally in Harlem to protest the sault, first-degree riot, and discrimination evening to an open executive board meet­ killed it would have been different." This is racist murder of Turks and to demand full in violation of New York State's civil rights ing of TWU Local 100. Dixon asked the how callers reacted during a special WLm prosecution of the killers. law. These convictions on the Jesser board to endorse the April 9 rally and send radio show that featured Dennis Dixon and The Committee for Justice also an­ charges mean Bova could be sent~nced to a representative to speak. "It's good," rep­ Alton Maddox. nounced plans for a demonstration outside as little as 18 months in jail. lied John Lawe, president of the local, Dixon added: "I did not get fair treat­ the Brooklyn Supreme Court on March 31, "that so many union brothers and sisters The jury's verdict, however, was not to­ ment from the DA. I was not able to tell the the day Gino Bova - the first of four racist went down to the trial." Lawe, however, tally unexpected considering how the jury story how it happened." Maddox pointed thugs to be tried - is to be sentenced. did not commit the union to join in further was selected. Right off the bat, Blacks, out that "the mob should have been Solidarity with the victims of.racist as­ protest activities. transit workers (white or Black), anybody charged as a whole and not individually. saults is especially strong among transit who knew a transit worker, and all Carib­ The reason it was brought to trial was be­ workers. "Justice was not done; they The Committee for Justice for Willie beans, were excluded from the jury. cause of pressure. It is necessary to take should have given Bova twenty-five to Turks is redoubling its efforts to involve Big Red, a Black community news­ matters into the street to get justice." life," is how one older Irish mechanic put unionists, Black rights' activists, and oth­ paper, quoted Congressman Enoch Wil­ Dixon explained the importance of the it. ers in its campaign to win justice. It urges liams as saying, "I just wonder how they publicity in the case in getting out the truth Workers at the 239th Street transit barn broad participation in the March 31 and got a jury of eleven whites and one His- and in protecting his own life. A transit heard a lunchtime report from a young me- April 9 rallies.

8 The Militant March 25, 1983 International Socialist • • RevleW__ _Mar_ch1983 Centennial

BY MARGARET JAYKO wrote the same kind of vicious slanders on the occasion "A specter is haunting Central America and the Carib­ ·of his death that they had written while he was alive. bean - the specter of Communism." This is how the ol Karl But the workers of the world sensed that they had suf­ opening sentence of The Communist Manifesto, written fered a great loss. In the United States, much of the labor by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels in 1848, might read press reported his death, hailed Marx's contributions, if it were written today. and pledged that the proletarian struggle would continue March 14 marks the lOOth anniversary of Marx's on to victory. death. The centrality of Marxism for our epoch is openly Engels captured this sentiment in a letter he sent to acknowledged today even by its fiercest opponents. Marx's Friedrich Sorge, the foremost U.S. Marxist of the time, The "specter of Communism" is increasingly the cen­ the day after Marx died. Engels explained that "mankind tral theme of every foreign policy speech by the Reagan is shorter by a head, and the greatest head of our time at administration. that. . . . The final victory is certain, but circuitous Pope John Paul II's recent tour of Central America and paths, temporary and local errors - things which even the Caribbean was marked by his condemnations of class now are so unavoidable - will become more common struggle, "collectivist systems," and. above all; by his death than ever. Well, we must see it through. What else are we open hostility to the Nicaraguan workers' and peasants' here for? And we are not near losing courage yet." advance toward socialism. The biggest memorial meeting in the world was in­ Reagan's recent pronouncements on El Salvador have itiated by the Central Labor Union of Greater New York sounded the alarm about "falling dominoes." Without a 'Above.all, and Vidnity and was held at Cooper Union in downtown drastic increase in U.S. intervention in Central America Manhattan. Thousands of U.S. workers- both foreign­ and the Caribbean, El Salvador will follow Nicaragua and native-born - turned out. and the tiny Caribbean island of Grenada in taking the he was a Today, when the effects of the capitalist crisis on U.S. Cuban road of "Marxism-Leninism," says Reagan. working people are becoming ever more severe, there's Liberal Democratic Party politicians are no less fearful again a growing openness to the analyses and answers of Marxism-Leninism. In debating increased U.S. mili­ revolutionary' that Marxism provides. tary aid to El Salvador, Democratic Speaker of the House Thomas O'Neill summed up their position: "There's just 'Marx will be mentor of U.S. workers' a strong feeling around here that it's another Vietnam Leon Trotsky, one of the central leaders of the Russian situation. At the same time, nobody wants to see that revolution, wrote in 1939, "The best theoreticians of country go Marxist." Marxism will appear on American soil. ·Marx will be­ come the mentor of the advanced American workers." 'Struggle against communism' (Marxism in Our Time) In two recent speeches, Reagan highlighted the cen­ To commemorate the centenary of Marx's death, and trality of the "struggle against communism" (in reality, to advance the process of reconquering revolutionary the struggle to preserve capitalist exploitation of the Marxism by U.S. workers, the International Socialist laboring masses). Review has devoted a large part of this issue to excerpts On March 10, he told the National Association of from articles about Marx and Marxism. Manufacturers, "For the past three years, under two Pres­ These are not intended to be a ·comprehensive exposi­ idents, the United States has been engaged in an effort to tion of the ideas of Marx, or a complete picture of Marx's stop the advance of Coinmunism in Central America by life. They do give the reader a brief summary of some of doing what we do best - by supporting democracy." the basic tenets of Marxism, which we hope will stimu­ When he spoke to the National Association of late further reading and studying of Marxism. Evangelicals, Reagan branded communism as "the focus Included in this selection are two sections of a brief of evil in the modem world." biography of Marx, written by Vladimir Lenin, the cen­ Contradicting his own "falling dominoes" theory, tral leader of the Russian Bolshevik party. Reagan asserted, "I believe that Communism is another The second article is Engels' speech at Marx's funeral. sad, bizarre chapter in human history whose last pages The last piece is an excerpt from an article written by even now are being written." Joseph Hansen, a longtime central leader of the Socialist The reality of today's world, however, is not a declin­ Workers Party, who dier;I in 1979. ing influence of the ideas of Karl Marx, but the fact that In addition, we are reprinting a report from Nicaragua the socialist revolution he predicted is rapidly being ex- on the plans of the Sandinista National Liberation Front tended in the Western Hemisphere. · (FSLN) for commemorating the centenary of Marx's Millions of toilers in Latin America and the Caribbean, ~~- 0 inspired by the example of 24 years of the Cuban revolu­ tion, and the accomplishments of the four-year~old work­ ers and farmers governments in Nicaragua and Grenada, are reading, studying and applying Marxism in their struggles against imperialism and class exploitation. It's this advance of the socialist revolution, led by the Marxist leaderships of the Cuban Communist Party, the Nicaraguan Sandinista National Liberation Front, and the Grenadian New Jewel Movement, that is at the center of world politics today and that is provoking the increasing barrage of anticommunist propaganda- and military in­ tervention- from Washington. And it's this advance of the w·orkers of the world to­ ward socialism that more than anything else highlights the relevancy of Marxism 100 years after the death of Marx.

Socialism's advance - tribute to Marx The advance of the anticapitalist revolution is the most fitting tribute possible to Karl Marx, the founder. of the communist movement. Marx was not only the founder of scientific socialism - he was also the foremost political leader of the proletarian movement as it began some 150 years ago. As Frederick Engels - Marx's closest col­ laborator and lifelong friend - said in his speech at Marx's funeral, "Marx was before all else, a revolution­ ist." When Marx died on March 14, 1883, different social classes reacted differently to the news. Most of the big­ Karl Marx (above). Demonstration in Managua, Nicaragua, May Day 1982. Banner with Marx, Lenin reads, business press around the world either kept silent or "Cultural workers for construction of socialism."

March 26, 1983 The Militant 9 International Socialist Jtevievv.·------~------~M~a~rc~h~I~sw~2

went to London, where he lived till his death. V.I. Lenin's biographical sketch ol Marx His life as a political exile was a very hard one. Pov­ erty weighed heavily on Marx and his family: had it not been for Engels's constant and selfless financial aid, Printed below are excerpts from the firSt part of an Marx would not only.have been unable to complete Cap­ article written by Lenin for the Granat Encyclopaedic ital, but would have inevitably been crushed by want. Dictionary in 1914. The title of the article is "Karl u.Bielefeld Moreover, the prevailing doctrines and trends of petty­ Marx (A brief biographical sketch with an exposition bourgeois socialism, and of nonproletarian socialism in of Marxism)." In this section, Lenin gives a brief ac­ general, forced Marx to wage a continuous and merciless count of Marx's life. struggle and sometimes to repel the most savage and The entire article is available in Lenin's Collected monstrous personal attacks (Herr Vogt). Marx, who Worlcs, Volume 21! The coUection of Lenin's writings stood aloof from circles of political exiles, developed his Karl Marx & His Teachings contains the entire article materialist theory in a number of historical works, devot­ minus Lenin's annotated bibliography of Marx's ing himself mainly to a study of political economy. Marx writings. revolutionized this science in his Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy (1859) and Capital (Vol. Marx, Karl, was born on May 5, 1818 in the city of I, 1867). 1 Trier (Rhenish Prussia). His father was a lawyer, a Jew, The revival of the democratic movements in the late who in 1824 adopted Protestantism. The family was 1850s and in the 1860s recalled Marx to practical activ­ well-to-do, cultured, but not revolutionary. After ity. In 1864 (September 28) the International Working graduating from a [school] in Trier, Marx entered the Men's Association - the celebrated First International university, first at Bonn and later in Berlin, where he read -was founded in London. Marx was the heart and soul law, majoring in history and philosophy. He concluded of this organization, and author of its first Address 10 and his university course in 1841. At the time Marx was a 2 of a host of resolutions, declarations, and manifestos. Hegelian idealist in his views. In Berlin, he belonged to In uniting the labor movement of various countries, the circle of "Left Hegelians" (Bruno Bauer and others) striving to channel into joint activity the various forms of who sought to draw atheistic and revolutionary conclu­ RANCE nonproletarian, pre-Marxist socialism (Mazzini, sions from Hegel's philosophy. Proudhon, Bakunin, liberal trade-unionism in Britain, After graduating, Marx moved to Bonn, hoping to be­ Lassallean vacillations to the right in Germany, etc.), and come a professor. However, the reactionary policy of the in combating the theories of all these sects and schools, government- which deprived Ludwig Feuerbach3 of his Prussian Rhine Province and Westphalia after 1815. Rhineland, where Marx grew up, was most indus­ Marx hammered out a uniform tactic for the proletarian chair in 1832, refused to allow him to return to the uni­ struggle of the working class in the various countries. versity in 1836, and in 1841 forbade young Professor trially developed part of what became unified state of Following the downfall of the Paris Commune 11 · Bruno Bauer to lecture at Bonn - made Marx abandon Germany. (1871) ~of which Marx gave such a profound, clear­ the idea of an academic career. cut, brilliant, effective, and revolutionary analysis (The Left Hegelian views were making rapid headway in friend. They both took a most active part in the then see­ Civil War in France, 1871) - and the Bakuninist­ Germany at the time. Ludwig Feuerbach began to thing life of the revolutionary groups in Paris, waging a caused12 cleavage in the International, the latter organi­ criticize theology, particularly after 1836, and tum to vigorous struggle against the various doctrines of petty­ zation could no longer exist in Europe. After the Hague materialism, which in 1841 gained the ascendancy in his bourgeois socialism, they worked out the theory and tac­ Congress of the International (1872), Marx had the Gen­ philosophy (The Essence of Christianity). The year 1843 tics of revolutionary proletarian socialism, or commu­ eral Council of the International transferred to New saw the appearance of his Principles of the Philosophy of nism (Marxism). York. The First International had played its historical the Future. "One must oneself have experienced the At the insistent request of the Prussian government, part, and now made way for a period of a far greater de­ liberating effect" of these books, Engels subsequently Marx was banished from Paris in 1845, as a dangerous velopment of the labor movement in all countries in the wrote of these works of Feuerbach. "We [i.e., the Left revolutionary. He went to Brussels. world, a period in which the movement grew in scope, Hegelians, including Marx] all became at once Feuerbach­ In the spring of 184 7 Marx and Engels joined a secret and mass socialist working-class parties in individual na­ ians."4 propaganda· society called the Communist League; they tional states were formed. At that time, some radical bourgeois in the Rhineland, took a prominent part in the League's second congress Marx's health was undermined by his strenuous work who were in touch with the Left Hegelians, founded, in (LOndon, J!;f,avember 1847),:;at wlf'ose request they <4ew in the International and his still morestrenuws tbeoreti... Cologne, an opposition paper called Rheinische Zeitung up the celebrated Communist Manifesto, which appeared cal occupations. He continued work on the refashioning (the first issue appeared on January 1, 1842). Marx and in February 1848. With the clarity and brilliance of geni­ Of political economy and on the completion of Capital, Bruno Bauer were invited to be the chief contributors, us, this work outlines a new world-conception, consistent for which he collected a mass of new material and studied and in October 1842 Marx became editor-in-chief and materialism, which also embraces the realm of social life; a number of languages (Russian, for instance). However, moved from Bonn to Cologne. The newspaper's revolu­ dialectics, as the most comprehensive and profound doc­ ill-health prevented him from completing Capital. tionary-democratic trend became more and more pro­ trine of development; the theory of the class struggle and His wife died on December 2, 1881, and on March 14, nounced under Marx's editorship, and the government of the world-historic revolutionary role of the proletariat 1883, Marx passed away peacefully in his armchair. He first imposed double and triple censorship on the paper, - the creator of a new, communist society. lies buried next to his wife at Highgate Cemetery in Lon­ and then on January 1, 1"843, decided to suppress it. On the outbreak of the revolution of February 1848,7 don. Of Marx's children some died in childhood in Lon­ Marx had to resign the editorship before that date, but Marx was banished from Belgium. He returned to Paris, don, when the family was living in destitute cir­ his resignation did not save the paper, which suspended whence, after the March revolution, 8 he went to Co­ cumstances. Three daughters married English and French publication in March 1843. Of the major articles Marx logne, Germany, where Neue Rheinische Zeitung was socialists: Eleanor Aveling, Laura Lafargue and Jenny contributed to Rheinische Zeitung, Engels notes an article published from June I, 1848, to May 19, 1849, with Loo~ct. o on the condition of peasant wine growers in the Moselle Marx as editor-in-chief. The new theory was splendidly Valley. 5 Marx's journalistic activities convinced him that confirmed by the course of the revolutionary events of he was insufficiently acquainted with political economy, 1848-49, just as it has been subsequently confirmed by 1849, protested the French government's sending of troops to and he zealously set out to study it. all proletarian and democratic movements in all countries Italy to crush the Roman Republic . The demonstration was dis­ In 1843, Marx married, at Kreuznach, Jenny von of the world. persed by government troops and was followed by massive re­ Westphalen, a childhood friend ne had become engaged The victorious counterrevolutionaries first instigated pression. This marked the beginning of the end of the revolu­ to while still a student. His wife came of a reactionary court proceedings against Marx (he was acquitted on tionary period of 1848-49. family of the Prussian nobility, her elder brother being February 9, 1849), and then banished him from Germany 10. Inaugural Address of the Working Men's International As­ Prussia's minister of the interior during a most reaction­ (May 16, 1849). First Marx wentto Paris, was again ban­ sociation. ary period- 1850-58. ished after the demonstration of June 13, 1849,9 and then In the autumn of 1843, Marx went to Paris in order to 11 . ·For the first time in history, workers took political power out of the hands of the bourgeois rulers and ran Paris them­ publish a radical journal abroad, together with Arnold 7. French bourgeois-democratic revolution of 1848. selves. The Commune lasted for 72 days, and was then Ruge [a] Left Hegelian. Only one issue· of this journal, drowned in blood by French troops. Deutsch-Franzosische Jahrbucher, appeared; publica­ 8. Bourgeois-democratic revolution in Germany and Austria, tion was discontinued owing to the difficulty of secretly which began in March 1848. 12. Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin (1814-1876). Russian distributing it in Germany, and to disagreement with ideologist of anarchism. Avowed enemy of Marxism, Bakunin Ruge. Marx's articles in this journal showed that he was · 9. Peaceful demonstration by Paris proletariat on June ·13, tried to split the First InternationaL already a revolutionary, who advocated "merciless.criti­ cism of everythin~ existing," and in particular the "criti­ cism by weapon," and appealed to the masses and to the proletariat. · Frederick Engels' speech at Marx's luneral In September 1844, Frederick Engels came to Paris for a few days, and from that time on became Marx's closest Printed below is the speech given by Frederick En­ ment of human history: the simple fact, hitherto con­ gels at Marx's graveside during his funeral. This arti­ cealed by an overgrowth of ideology, that mankind must 1. At that time, Germany was not yet a unified nation. It con­ cle is available in the collection Marx and Engels first of all eat, drink, have shelter and clothing, before it sisted of dozens of independent states dominated by the Pros­ Through the Eyes of Their Contemporaries, and in can pursue politics, science, art, religion, etc.; that there­ sian monarchy. The Rhineland, in western Prussia, was the Selected Works of Marx and Engels, Volume 3. fore the production of the immediate material means of most industrially developed part of the territory. subsistence and consequently the degree of economic de­ On the 14th of March, at a quarter to three in the after­ velopment attained by a given people or during a given 2. Georg Hegel (1770-1831). A German professor who revo­ lutionized philosophy by setting forth a system of logic known noon, the greatest living thinker ceased to think. He had epoch form the foundation upon which the state institu­ as dialectics. been left alone for scarcely two minutes, and when we tions, the legal conceptions, art, and even the ideas on came back we found him in his armchair, peacefully religion, of the people concerned have been evolved, and 3. Ludwig Feuerbach (1804-1872). Materialist German phil­ gone to sleep - but forever. in the light of which they must, therefore, be explained, osopher who repudiated Hegel's idealism. An immeasurable loss has been sustained both by the instead of vice versa, as had hitherto been the case. 4. Ludwig Feuerbach and the End ofClassical German Philos­ __.)militant proletariat of Europe and America, and by his­ But that is not all. Marx also discovered the special law ophy, written by.Engels in 1886. torical science, in the death of this man. The gap that has of motion governing the present-day capitalist mode of been left by the departure of this mighty spirit will soon production and the bourgeois society that this mode of 5. "Justification of the Correspondent from the Mosel." enough make itself felt. production has created. The discovery of surplus value 6. Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Law. Just as Darwin discovered the law of development of suddenly threw light on the problem, in trying to solve Introduction. written by Marx in 1843-1844. organic nature, so Marx discovered the law of develop- which all previous investigations, of both bourgeois

10 The Miijtant March 25, 1983 March ISR/3 economists and socialist critics, had been groping in the human societies? What are the objective conditions of dark. production of material life that form the basis of all of Two such discoveries would be enough for one man's historical activity? What is the law of development lifetime. Happy the man to whom it is granted to make of these conditions? To all these Marx drew attention and even one such discovery. But in every single field which indicated the way to a scientific study of history as a Marx investigated - and he investigated very many single process which, with all its immense variety and fields, none of them superficially-in every field, even in contradictoriness, is governed by definite laws. that of mathematics, he made independent discoveries. Such was the man of science. But this was not even The class struggle half the man. Science was for Marx a historically dynamic, revolutionary force. However great the joy It is common knowledge that, in any given society, the with which he welcomed a new discovery in some strivings of some of its members conflict with the striv­ theoretical science whose practical application perhaps it ings of others, that social life is full of contradictions, and was as yet quite impossible to envisage, he experienced that history reveals a struggle between nations and quite another kind of joy when the discovery involved societies, as well as within nations and societies, and, be­ immediate revolutionary changes in industry, and in his­ sides, an alternation of periods of revolution and reac­ torical development in general. For example, he followed tion, peace and war, stagnation and rapid progress or de­ closely the development of the discoveries made in the cline. field of electricity and recently those of Marcel Deprez.* Marxism has provided the guidance, i.e., the theory of For Marx was before all else a revolutionist. His real the class struggle, for the discovery of the laws governing mission in life was to contribute, in one way or another, this seeming maze and chaos. It is only a study of the sum to the overthrow of capitalist society and of the state in­ of the strivings of all the members of a given society or stitutions which it had brought into being, to contribute group of societies that can lead to a scientific definition to the liberation of the modem proletariat, which he was of the result of those strivings. Now the conflicting striv­ the first to make conscious of its own position and its ings stem from the difference in the position and mode of needs, conscious of the conditions of its emancipations. life of the classes into which each society is divided. Fighting was his element. And he fought with a pass­ "The history of all hitherto existing society is the his­ ion, a tenacity and a success such as few could rival. His tory of class struggles," Marx wrote in the Communist work on the first Rheinische Zeitung (1842), the Paris Manifesto (with the exception of the history of the primi­ Vorwiirts (1844), the Deutsche-Briisseler-Zeitung, tive community, Engels added subsequently). "Freeman Frederick Engels (1820-1895) (1847), the Neue Rheinische Zeitung (1848-49), the New and slave, patrician and plebian, lord and serf, guild­ York Tribune (1852.:..()1), and in addition to these a host master and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppres­ of militant pamphlets, work in organizations in Paris, ritories. Bourgeois, whether conservative or ultra-demo­ sed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried Brussels and London, and finally, crowning all, the for­ cratic, vied with one another in heaping slanders upon on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight mation of the great International Working Men's Associ­ him. All this he brushed aside as though it were cobweb, that each time ended; either in a revolutionary reconstitu­ ation - this was indeed an achievement of which its ignoring it, answering only when extreme necessity com­ tion of society at large, or in the common ruin of the con­ founder might well have been proud even if he had done pelled him. And he died beloved, revered and mourned tending classes. . . . nothing else. by millions of revolutionary fellow workers - from the "The modern bourgeois society that has sprouted from And, consequently, Marx was the best hated and most mines of Siberia to California, in all parts of Europe and the ruins of feudal society has not done away with class calumniated man of his time. Governments, both ab­ America - and I make bold to say that though he may antagonisms. It has but established new classes, new solutist and republican, deported him from their ter- have had many opponents he had hardly one personal conditions of oppression, new forms of struggle in place enemy. of the old ones. Our epoch, the epoch of the bourgeoisie, possesses, however, this distinctive feature: it has * Marcel Deprez (1843-1918). French physicist, conducted His name will endure through the ages, and so also will the first experiments on distant transmission of electricity. ~~~! D simplified the class antagonisms. Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great classes directly facing each other: bourgeoisie and proletariat." Ever since the Great French Revolution,2 European Lenin: Marx on history, class struggle, socialism history has, in a number of countries, tellingly revealed what actually lies at the bottom of events - the struggle Printed below are further excerpts from Lenin's ar­ rapidly transformed. In considering such transformations of classes. ticle titled "Karl Marx (A brief biographical sketch a distinction should always be made between the material The modern period - that of the complete victory of with an exposition of Marxism.)" In these excerpts, transformation of the economic conditions of production, the bourgeoisie, representative institutions, extensive (if Lenin reviews Marx's ideas on the materialist concep­ which can be determined with the precision of natural not universal) suffrage, a cheap daily press, that is widely tion of history, the class struggle, and socialism. science, and the legal, political, religious, aesthetic, or circulated among the masses, etc. , a period of powerful philosophic - in short, ideological forms in which men and ever-expanding unions of workers and unions of em­ The materialist conception of history become conscious of this conflict and fight it out. ployers, etc.- has shown even more strikingly (though A realization of the inconsistency, incompleteness, "Just as our opinion of an individual is not based on sometimes in a very one-sided, "peaceful" and "constitu­ and one-sidedness of the old materialism convinced Marx what he thinks of himself, so we cannot judge of such a tional" form) the class struggle as the mainspring of of the necessity of "bringing the science of society . . . period of transformation by its own consciousness; on the events. into harmony with the materialist foundation, and of re­ contrary, this consciousness must be explained rather The following passage from Marx's Communist Man­ constructing it thereupon". 1 Since materialism in gen­ from the contradictions of material life, from the existing ifesto will show us what Marx demanded of social sci­ eral explains consciousness as the outcome of being, and conflict between the social productive forces and the rela­ ence as regards an objective analysis of the position of not conversely, then materialism as applied to the social tions of production .. . . In broad outlines Asiatic, an­ each class in modern society, with reference to an life of mankind has to explain social consciousness as the cient, feudal, and modem bourgeois modes of production analysis of each class's conditions of development: "Of outcome of social being. can be designated as progressive epochs in the economic all the classes that stand face to face with the bourgeoisie "Technology," Marx writes (Capital, Vol. 1), "dis­ formation of society." today, the proletariat alone is a really revolutionary class. closes man's mode of dealing with nature, the immediate The discovery of the materialist conception of history, The other classes decay and finally disappear in the face process of production by which he sustains his life, and or more correctly, the consistent continuation and exten­ of modern industry; the proletariat is its special and es­ thereby also lays bare the mode of formation of his social sion of materialism into the domain of social phenomena, sential product. The lower middle class, the small man­ relations, and of the mental conceptions that flow from removed the two chief shortcomings in earlier historical ufacturer, the shopkeeper, the artisan, the peasant, all them." In the preface to his Contribution to the Critique theories. In the first place, the latter at best examined these fight against the bourgeoisie, to save from extinc- - of Political Economy, Marx gives an integral formulation only the ideological motives in the historical activities of tion their existence as fractions of the middle class. They of the fundamental principles of materialism as applied to human beings, without investigating the origins of those are therefore not revolutionary, but conservative. Nay human society and its history, in the following words: motives, or ascertaining the objective laws governing the more; they are reactionary, for they try to roll back the "In the social production of their life, men enter into development of the system of social relations, or seeing wheel of history. If by chance they are revolutionary, definite relations that are indispensable and independent the roots of these relations in the degree of development they are so only in view of their impending transfer into of their will, relations of production which correspond to reached by material production; in the second place, the the proletariat; they thus defend not their present, but their a definite stage of development of their material produc­ earlier theories did not embrace the activities of the· mass­ future interests; they desert their own standpoint to place tive forces. es of the population, whereas historical materialism themselves at that of the proletariat." "The sum total of these relations of production consti­ made it possible for the first time to study with scientific In a number of historical works, Marx gave brilliant tutes the economic structure of society, the real founda­ accuracy the social conditions of the life of the masses, and profound examples of materialist historiography, of tion, on which rises a legal and political superstructure and the changes in these conditions. an analysis of the position of each individual class, and and to which correspond definite forms of social con­ At best, pre-Marxist "sociology" and historiography sometimes of various groups or strata within a class, sciousness. The mode of production of material life con­ brought forth an accumulation of raw facts, collected at showing plainly why and how "every class struggle is a 3 ditions the social, political, and intellectual life process random, and a description of individual aspects of the political struggle. " The above-quoted passage is an il­ in general. It is not the consciousness of men that deter­ historical-process. By examining the totality of opposing lustration of what a complex network of social relations . mines their being, but, on the contrary, their social being tendencies, by reducing them to precisely definable con­ and transitional stages from one class to another, from that determines their consciousness. ditions of life and production of the various classes of so­ the past to the future, was analysed by Marx so as to de­ "At a certain stage of their development, the material ciety, by discarding subjectivism and arbitrariness in the termine the resultant of historical development. productive forces of society come in conflict with the choice of a particular "dominant" idea or in its interpreta­ existing relations of production, or- what is but a legal tion, and by revealing that, without exception, all ideas Socialism expression for the same thing - with the property rela­ and all the various tendencies stem from the condition of Marx deduces the inevitability of the transformation of tions within which they have been at work hitherto. From the material forces of production, Marxism indicated the capitalist society into socialist society wholly and exclu­ forms of development of the productive forces these rela­ way to an all-embracing and comprehensive study ofthe sively from the economic law of the development of con­ tions tut'n into their fetters. Then begins an epoch of so­ process of the rise, development, and decline of socio­ temporary society. The socialization of labor, which is cial revolution. With the change of the economic founda­ economic systems. _ Continued on next page tion the entire immense superstructure is more or less People make their own history, but what determines the motives of people, of the mass of people, i.e., what 2. French bourgeois democratic revolution of 1789-93. 1. Ludwig Feuerbach and the End of Classical German gives rise to the clash of conflicting ideas and strivings? Philosophy. What is the sum total of all these clashes in the mass of 3. The Communist Manifesto.

March 25, 1983 The· Militant 11 International Socialist Jtevievv.------~M~a~rc~h~•~sru~4

Continued from preceding page of adding to the efficiency of social production, but as the Even the democratic republic, the freest and most advancing ever more rapidly in thousands of forms and only method of producing fully developed human be­ progressive form of the bourgeois state, does not elimi­ has manifested itself very strikingly,, during the half-cen­ ings" (ibid.). nate this fact in any way, but merely modifies its form tury since the death of Marx, in the growth of large-scale Marx's socialism places the problems of nationality (the links between the government and the stock ex­ production, capitalist cartels, syndicates and trusts, as and of the state on the same historical footing, not only change, the corruption - direct and indirect - of of­ well as in the gigantic increase in the dimensions and in the sense of explaining the past but also in the sense of ficialdom and the press, etc.). By leading to the abolition power of finance capital, provides the principal material a bold forecast of the future and of bold practical action of classes, socialism will thereby lead to the abolition of foundation for the inevitable advent of socialism. for its achievement. the state as well. Nations are an inevitable product, an inevitable form, The intellectual and moral motive force and the phys­ "The first act," Engels writes inAnti-Diihring, "by vir­ in the bourgeois epoch of social development. The work­ ical executor of this transformation is the proletariat, tue of which the state really constitutes itself the repre­ ing class could not grow strong, become mature, and take which has been trained by capitalism itself. The pro­ sentative of society as a whole - the taking possession shape without "constituting itself within the nation," letariat's struggle against the bourgeoisie, which finds of the means of production in the name of society- is, without being "national" ("though not in the bourgeois expression in a variety of forms ever richer in content, in­ at the same time, its last independent act as a state. . The sense of the word"). The development of capitalism, evitably becomes a political struggle directed towards the state interference in social relations becomes superfluous however, breaks down national barriers more and more, conquest of political power by the proletariat ("the dic­ in one sphere after another, and then ceases of itself. The does away with national seclusion, and substitutes class tatorship of the proletariat"). The socialization of produc­ government of persons is replaced by the administration antagonisms for national antagonisms. It is, therefore, tion cannot but lead to the means of production becoming of things and by the direction of the processes of produc­ perfectly true of the developed capitalist countries that the property of society, to the "expropriation of the expro­ tion. The state is not 'abolished,' it withers away." "The "the working men have no country" and that "united ac­ priators." A tremendous rise in labor productivity, a shor­ society that will organize production on the basis of a free tion" by the workers, of the civilized countries at least, ter working day, and the replacement of the remnants, and equal association of the producers will put the whole "is one of the first conditions for the emancipation of the the ruins, of small-scale, primitive, and disunited pro­ machinery of state where it will then belong: into the proletariat" (Communist Manifesto). duction by collective and improved labor- such are the museum of antiquities, by the side of the spinning wheel direct consequences of this transformation. The state, which is organized coercion, inevitably and the bronze axe" (Engels, The Origin of the Family, Capitalism breaks for all time the ties between agricul­ came into being at a definite stage in the development of Private Property and the State). ture and industry, but at the same time, through its highest society, when the latter had split into irreconcilable class­ development, it prepares new elements of those ties, a es, and could not exist without an "authority" ostensibly Finally, as regards the attitude of Marx's socialism to­ union between industry and agriculture based on the con­ standing above society, and to a certain degree separate wards the small peasantry, which will continue to exist in scious application of science and the concentration of. from society. the period of the expropriation of the expropriators, we collective labor, and on a redistribution of the human Arising out of class contradictions, the state becomes must refer to a declaration made by· Engels, which ex­ population (thus putting an end to both rural backward­ " ... the state of the most powerful, economically do­ presses Marx's views: " ... when we are in possession ness, isolation, and barbarism, and to the unnatural con­ minant class, which, through the medium of the state, be­ of state power we shall not even think of forcibly expro­ centration of vast masses of people in big cities). comes also the politically dominant class, and thus ac­ priating the small peasants (regardless of whether with or A new form of family, new conditions in the status of quires new means of holding down and exploiting the op­ without compensation), as we shall have to do in the case women and in the upbringing of the younger generation pressed class. Thus, the state of antiquity was above all . of the big landowners. Our task relative to the small peas­ are prepared by the highest forms of present-day the state of the slave-owners for the purpose of holding ant consists, in the first place, in effecting a transition of capitalism: the labor of women ~d children and the down the slaves, as the feudal state was the organ of the his private enterprise and private possession to coopera­ break-up of the patriarchal family by capitalism and inevit­ nobility for holding down the peasant serfs and tive ones, not forcibly but by dint of example and the ably assume the most terrible, disastrous, and repulsive bondsmen, and the modem representative state is an in­ proffer of social assistance for this purpose. And then of forms in modem society. strument of exploitation of wage labor by capital" (En­ course we shall have ample means of showing to the Nevertheless, "modem industry, by assigning as it gels, The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the small peasant prospective advantages that must be obvi­ does, an important part in the socially organized process State, a work in which the writer expounds his own views ous to him even today." (Engels, The Peasant Question of production, outside the domestic sphere, to women, to and Marx's). in France and Germany.) o young persons, and to children of both sexes, creates a new economic foundation for a higher form of the family and of the relations between the sexes. It is, of course, just as absurd to hold the Teutonic-Christian form of the JoseJ.~, Hansen: is, Marxism-Leninism ohsole~e? family to be absolute and final as it would be to apply that character to the ancient Roman, the ancient Greek, or the Below are excerpts from an article written by [Hansen then went on to describe three schools of po­ Eastern forms which, moreover, taken together form a Joseph Hansen tided "Is Marxism-Leninism Obso­ litical thought that proclaim opposition to capitalism, but series in historic development. - lete?" The article was written in 1968 for inclusion in reject basic Marxist ideas. Hansen singled out in this re­ "Moreover, it is obvious that the fact of the collective a collection of articles marking the 50th anniversary gard nineteenth-century German social-democratic re­ working group being composed of ip.dividuals of both of the triumph of the October 1917 Russian Revolu­ visionist Eduard Bernstein; Joseph Stalin; and "new lef­ sexes and all ages, must necessarily, under suitable con­ tion. The collection was published by Pathfinder tists" of the 1960s.] ditions, become a source of humane development; al­ Press under the title SO Years of World Revolution: Before considering the arguments of these schools at though in its spontaneously developed, brutal, capitalis­ An International Symposium. closer range, it would provide a useful counterpoint to tic form, where the laborer exists for the process of pro­ state briefly the central postulates of scientific socialism. duction, and not the process of production for the la­ Where does Marxism-Leninism stand a half century I) It is humanist. Economic activities involve human borer, that fact is a pestiferous source of corruption and after the October Revolution? beings. Whatever the technological and sociological con­ slavery" (Capital, Vol. I, end of Chapter 13). This question is not academic. It has become an inte­ ditions may be, human beings in a given social formation The factory system contains "the germ of the education gral component of world politics since the end of World work up the materials taken from nature into the means of the future, an education that will, in the case of every War II. The foreign policy of the greatest capitalist power needed to sustain them as individuals, as groups, as a child over a given age, combine productive labor with in­ has centered on "containing" and eventually rolling back species. In the final analysis, all economic relations and , struction and gymnastics, not only as one of the methods "Communism." The biggest witch-hunt in American his­ their corresponding categories originate in this human tory - launched by Truman, carried to a frenetic pitch labor activity - including the enigmatic category of under the guidance of the late Senator [Joseph] McCar­ "value" clarified by Marx. thy, and still virulent in many fields of American life - If this point seems obvious enough, it is not so to many FSLI plans lor Man centenary was directed against the "Communist threat." bourgeois ideologists and those influenced by them. Washington has repeatedly intervened in civil conflicts They find the source of economic categories in objects­ The Sandinista National Liberation Front in other countries, toppling governments as in Iran and commodities, rare metals, money; or in vague abstrac­ (FSLN) of Nicaragua announced the formation of Guatemala, sending U.S. troops to Lebanon and the tions like "wants and desires," "ability," "scarcity," a committee to commemorate the IOOth anniver­ Dominican Republic, or financing and organizing mer­ "supply and demand," etc. sary of the death of Karl Marx. The FSLN's daily cenaries as in the Bay of Pigs invasion and in the Congo It was Marx's great merit, following the insights pro­ newspaper, Barricada, published the resolution - all in the name of fighting "Communism." Interven­ vided by Ludwig Feueroach, to disclose the reification passed by the FSLN to set up the committee. tion of this kind has twice been escalated into a war of involved in the bourgeois outlook. Underlying such The resolution said, "WHEREAS such size as to risk a major conflagration that could end things as commodities and other concrete forms of capital ''I. Karl Marx, the great German thinker and in a nuclear catastrophe: in Korea in 1950-52, in Viet­ are relations between exploiting and exploited classes and historian, gave humanity extraordinary scientific nam today. the various sectors of these classes. contributions. The principal source of this "Communist threat" has With his proof that the bourgeois outlook is largely an "2. His work, life, and thought has been a tool been the Soviet Union- at least up to the time of Mao unconscious projection, a secular version of the religious at the service of the oppressed of the earth. and Fidel Castro. Behind the Soviet Union, the bourgeois way of viewing the world, Marx at the same time estab­ "3. Our working people justly value his his­ ideologues and propagandists invariably trace the genesis lished that his own approach was based on social reality. toric-scientific legacy. of the threat to the theoretical system of Karl Marx and Thus in the case of gold, Marx showed that the "pre­ "The FSLN has constituted the Organizing Com­ the political methods of V. I. Lenin. cious" quality attached to its physical properties by the mittee for the Days of Commemoration of the miser, banker, or bourgeois entrepreneur, or those who centenary of the death of Karl Marx." Soviet Union, Lenin, Marx think like them, is illusory. Under Marx's procedure, the Commander of the Revolution Victor Tirado "precious" quality of gold is seen to derive from the im­ L6pez, a member of the National Directorate of the Thus the trinity of the Soviet Union, Lenin, and Marx mense human labor exerted in searching for it, mining FSLN will head up the committee. has been a perennial target of attack. The propaganda, and refining it. Its exchange value, in short, is derived Barricada listed 17 members of the committee, like most of the war propaganda turned out by these reac­ from the real world of human activities. The bourgeois including Lucio Jimenez, the general secretary of tionary sources, is crude enough, Its principal objective procedure, at best, puts things upside down, leads to end­ the Sandinista Workers Federation; Edgardo Gar­ is mere brainwashing. less confusion, and stands in the way of any genuine cia, general secretary of the Rural Workers Associ­ Something more plausible is required, however, to progress in understanding the economic system, its ori­ ation; Alejandro Solorzano, general secretary of have deep or lasting effect on serious people genuinely gin, development, and future evolution. This is the fun­ the General Association of Workers (independent); concerned about the truth. Thus the more sincere, or damental basis of Marx's claim to having foundf:.d a sci­ Father Emesto Cardenal, minister of culture; Com­ more skilled, bourgeois theoreticians make at least a pre­ ence of society. mander Olga Aviles, president of the Nicaraguan tense of examining Marxism-Leninism in an objective 2) Scientific socialism is materialist. Nature and labor Committee for Peace; and Guerrilla Commander way. Their output is prodigious but singularly lacking in are the twin bases of society. The evolution of human so­ Leticia Herrera, general secretary of the Sandinista originality. The same theme is insistently repeated dec­ ciety hinges in the final analysis on the development of Defense Committees. ade after decade: Marxism is not a science but only a dogma. Continued on ISR Page 8

12 The Militant March 25, 1983 March ISR/5 Revolutionary Iarmer BY DOUG JENNESS the Socialist Party (SP) candidate for president. Some­ John Enestvedt has been active in farm protest move­ time around that time I joined the SP local in Willmar." ments for nearly 60 years. For most of that time he has John told us that he began farming with a brother in the been a socialist. tells of spring of 1929. "But then the crash came in the fall. The John was born in 1906 on a farm near Sacred Heart in bank that loaned us money to get started busted. Its ac­ west central Minnesota. He has lived in that vicinity his counts were transferred to another bank that liquidated entire life. It's the same area that his grandparents, im­ our loan. We farmed for a few months and were wiped migrants from Norway, homesteaded in the late 1860s. 6 decades out!" he exclaimed. His long experience and continued commitment to the "I then farmed a little in the next couple of years with farmers' struggle and socialism embody lessons that are machinery I borrowed from my dad and by renting a little of interest to younger fighters coming forward today. land. I lived at home with my parents." With this in mind, Jay Ressler, a leader of the Socialist Workers Party in the Twin Cities, and I; drove out to Sa­ in struggle Farmers take a holiday cred Heart to interview John in mid-December. It's about two and one-half hours from the Twin Cities. Farmers all over were really hit hard by the depression~ John and his wife Edythe live with their grandson in a John explained. Prices, which had been dropping since ,house they built themselves. It rests on about 80 acres of 1920, went even lower. Many farmers couldn't make a land nearly adjacent to the Minnesota River. From a liv­ living at all and tens of thousands of farms were fore­ ing room picture window we gazed out across the river closed. valley. John gave us a short course on the geology of the In 1931 farmers began organizing local actions to halt area including the effects of the last glaciation. farm and chattel (livestock, machinery, and other movable Then after a good lunch, we sat down for many hours property) mortgage sales. "I remember that we heard of discussion. John is a good conversationalist, full of about one in Atwater just a little northeast ofhere," John stories and a ready laugh. said. We asked him if he could remember his first protest ac­ John Bosch, who was later to become head of the Min­ tion. "I sure can," he replied. "It was when I was in grade nesota Farmers' Holiday Association (FHA) and a national school, but it's still fresh in my mind. officer of the organization, helped organize that action. "Most kids in this area couldn't read or speak English At the national convention of the National Farmers Union real well. We spoke Norwegian at home. Even all the (NFU '- a national farmers' organization established in school board members were Norwegian. 1901) later that year, Bosch proposed that it get involved "Well, we got this teacher who said we couldn't speak in halting farm foreclosures. The convention refused to Norwegian on the school grounds. We didn't like that so support this move. some of us decided to protest. We'd lay down in a circle "Then the next spring the Farmers' Holiday Association with our heads together in the middle so we could speak was set up in Iowa," John told us. "It spread like wildfire. Norwegian. This way we could also see in every direc­ In August it launched a strike. The idea was to force pro­ tion whether the teacher was coming. We'd stop when cessors and distributors to give us a better price by collec­ she appeared. But we wouldn't speak English. She fi­ tively keeping our produce off the market. It meant put­ nally gave up and said, 'I don't care how how much you ting up check points on the highways to keep scab pro­ talk Norwegian, but speak to me once in awhile. ' duce from getting through. "It shows what you can do if you join together," John "There were a lot of pitched battles," John continued, laughed, "and if you're right. I've never forgotten that." "as cops and national guardsmen tried to accompany scab trucks through farmers' lines. Here in Renville County Non..Partisan League we kept all milk and eggs from getting to market. We / completely shut down the creameries." John explained that when he was a youth the principal Militant/Jay Ressler John went on to explain that in many areas the strike protest movement was the Non-Partisan League (NPL). John Enestvedt at his farm in Sacred Heart, Min­ closed things down. But with the exception of Sioux The NPL was founded in North Dakota in 1915 by A.C. nesota. City, Iowa, no contracts were negotiated with the proces­ Townley, a flax farmer. It spread quickly to other states sors. and by 1918 had 80,000 members in Minnesota, the By the middle of October the strikes were for the most largest number in any state. part over. The FHA then decided to launch a campaign to "Both my uncle and dad were active in the NPL," stop mortgage foreclosures. "We had a lot of them here John said. "For a period my uncle was the state chairman. in the Renville County area. I don't recall how many. He was a seed processor and I used to work for him. Maybe as many as 35. "When he traveled to nearby towns selling seeds he "There were quite a few penny sales. We'd go to a sale carried o11t organizing for the NPL at the same time. In and all agree to bid no more than a few cents. A lot of fact he probably spent more time on politics than selling pressure was exerted on anybody who dido 't go along seeds. I would help distribute literature and put stamps on with this. mailings." "We had quite a good communications network," John In North Dakota the NPL's election tactics were to run continued. "Once we heard about a sale we could get the its own candidates in the Republican primary. With this word out for a demonstration on 24 hours' notice. I was approach the NPL succeeded in getting a lot of candi­ part of a three-person committee in the state in charge of dates elected to major state offices. The NPL became the communications. The other two were women from other dominant political force in North Dakota politics for sev­ towns in the state." eral years. John explained that after a sale was stopped a debt ad­ John recalled working for a couple of farmers in North justment committee of farmers would help the farmer Dakota in the spring and summer of 1928. One of the Farmers' Holiday Association marches in Mon­ meet with creditors. They would try to negotiate a post­ farmers, an old Norwegian homesteader, talked a lot. tevideo, Minnesota, during Great Depression. ponement or refinancing of the loan. "A cousin of mine about the League and how it had organized its activities Enestvedt organized and led militant actions in this served on one of these committees," he said. and protests. area that prevented farm foreclosures and helped John recalled one particularly memorable sale. "Over "He explained to me," John said, "what a Goose Egg force state to declare farm-debt moratoriums. in Montevideo the mortgage holder and the sheriff de­ Township is. It was how they referred to townships in cided to call in the U.S. marshal to conduct the sale. So North Dakota where every single vote had been cast for active in politics, especially in the Farmer-Labor Party. this was seen as a big challenge. When it was a tough one the NPL ticket. And there were a lot of townships like "My father was very honest and forthright politically," he like this and we needed people bad, they really came. It that in the state." said. "And this he taught me. He was a very devout was a strong movement." In Minnesota, the tactic of running candidates in the Lutheran, but politically devoted to the Non-Partisan The turnout for the Montevideo action was about Republican primary was tried at first, but not for long. In League, was opposed to World War I, was for the Farm­ 8,000, he related. They came from South Dakota and 1918 the NPL joined the AFL State Federation of Labor er-Labor Party, the Farmers Holiday movement, and for Iowa as well as Minnesota. "It was quite a demonstra­ in running a Farmer-Labor ticket in the state elections. cooperatives." tion. We stopped the sale too," John said proudly. A Working People's Non-Partisan League was set up The Farmer-Labor Party succeeded in electing Floyd "We had bought some quarter-inch rope and made that collaborated with the NPL in running Farmer-Labor B. Olsen governor in 1930. "My father got an appoint­ hangman's nooses. When the marshal came through we tickets. In 1923 the two groups fused forming the Farm­ . ment as a state weed inspector. I became active in the spun them on our fingers," he chuckled. "That marshal er-Labor Federation (soon renamed Farmer-Labor As­ Junior Farmer-Labor group, a youth affiliate of the FLP." was so damned scared he needed an escort to the court­ sociation). It was a membership organization to which We asked John how he became a socialist. "Many house." trade unions were accepted into affiliation as a body. It people in the NPL and the FLP considered themselves In many areas the governing officials attempted to appeared in the electoral arena as the Farmer-Labor Party socialist," he explained. "Some of the old Scandina­ break up the foreclosure protests. They organized (FLP). vians and Germans were confirmed socialists when they sheriffs' posses and called out the national guard. The "My experience with the NPL taught me to be against came to the United States. They weren' t necessarily Marx­ governor of Iowa put several counties under martial law both the major political parties," John said. "I learned at ists like we think of, but they were strongly against the at one point in 1933. "The press continually accused us an early age that the two old parties were no good. This Democrats and Republicans. of fomenting violence," John said. "But the violence experience with the NPL was like going to school. And "I guess I considered myself a socialist ever since I was came from the cops. this was the main thing I learned." 20 or so. In the 1928 elections, which were the first that "Of course the better organized we were and the more In 1926 John's uncle died and his father became more I was old enough to vote in, I voted for Norman Thomas, Continued on next page

March 25, 1983 The Militant 13 International Socialist Jtevievv.------~------~M~ar~ch~~~~w~'

Continued from preceding page people we drew to an action, the less chance there was it would be attacked, and the less violence there'd be." John said that the pressure for halting foreclosures was so great that Governor Olson in February 1933 declared a moratorium until May 1. But this was too short. The FHA decided to mount even more pressure. A march on the State Capitol in St. Paul was held in March. "People came from all over the state, at least 20,000," John recalled. He said that this action forced the state legislature to enact a two-year moratorium. The following year Con­ gress adopted a national moratorium and the Farm Relief Bill, which authorized refinancing of farm mortgages at lower interest rates. We asked if adoption of these measure~> ended the foreclosure protests. "It slowed them down," he replied. "But you have to remember that the moratorium was li­ mited to farms. It didn't include chattel. I remember being on actions to stop chattel sales through 1937." "Did the FHA campaign around any other issues?" we asked. Protest motorcade to State Capitol in St. Paul organized by Federal Workers Section (FWS) of Teamsters. John replied that one of its main slogans was "cost of Enestvedt came in contact with revolutionary leadership of Minneapolis Teamsters in 1934, later joined FWS and production." The FHA favored legislation that would at­ organized strikes against government. He and other revolutionary Teamster members participated in founding tempt to support prices so that farmers could meet their Socialist Workers Party in 1938. costs of production and have a living income. They supported setting prices at a level where the farmers' buying power would be comparable to better was the 1934 Teamsters' strikes in Minneapolis. Farmers also joined unionists in a mass demonstration years. It was in the 1930s that the government price sup­ He first met leaders of Teamsters Local 574 after the in Minneapolis supporting the strikers. port programs first used the relationship between prices strikes were over. "As I remember it," he said, "I was on Led by class-struggle fighters, Teamsters Local 574 and costs in 1910-1914 period as the index for setting a picket line that was part of another farm strike called by won the strikes and a contract. This laid the basis for a prices. In theory, if all commodity prices were at full par­ the Holiday. It was in Shakopee, just outside of Min­ Teamster organizing drive throughout the Midwest. ity, farmers would have the equivalent purchasing power neapolis. There was a group of workers from Teamsters that they had during this period. This is the origin of the Local 574 there too. When the picketing was over they Organizing on the job invited me and a couple of other farmers up to the demand for 100 percent of parity that many farmers are John became acquainted with members and leaders of Teamsters' strike kitchen in Minneapolis." raising today. the CLA following the strikes. (In December 1934 the "While the Holiday favored such legislation," John During both the May and July-August strikes the union CLA fused with the American Workers Party, headed by said, "it wasn't much involved in lobbying for it or writ­ organized a commissary capable of feeding 4,000 to A.J. Muste, to establish the Workers Party.) ing bills. We were primarily· an action movement and that 5,000 strikers daily. They often served meals there in the In 1935 John got a job as an adult education teacher as was how our influence was felt." following weeks to help out other workers involved in part of the Emergency Relief Administration (soon to be There were other issues, John observed. The big elec­ strikes. the Works Progress Administration-WPA). While par­ "That's the first time I ever met Skogie (.Carl Skog­ tric power companies refused to bring electricity to the ticipating in a training program at the University of Min­ lund)," John said. Skoglund was a central leader of the countryside except in a few places at exorbitant cost. In nesota, he got to know Max Geldman, a member of the Teamsters' strikes and a leader of the Communist League the mid-1930s less than 10 percent of the country's farms Workers Party in Minneapolis. Geldman was also head and rural homes had electricity. of America (CLA). TheCLA was formed by communists of the Federal Workers Section (FWS) of Local574. The FHA was among those organizations that tried to expelled from the Communist Party in 1928. They were The FWS was set up by the union to organize un­ get the federal government to electrify the rural areas. expelled for defending the political perspectives and trad­ employed workers. It included members of other unions Under this pressure President Roosevelt established the itions of Marx and Lenin against their perversion by sup­ and became the most influential unemployed organiza­ porters of Joseph Stalin. TheCLA was a predecessor of Rural Electrification Administration (REA) in 1935. At tion in the state. It waged. fights to protect unemployed the Socialist Workers Party which was established in first it offered loans to power companies. But they still workers against bureaucratic treatment by government didn't believe electrifying the countryside was profitable. 1938. relief administrators and to win more benefits. "Skogie came over and talked to us," John recalled. "It enough for them. So the REA offered loans to coopera­ Unemployed workers assigned to public works pro­ tives of farmers. inspired me that he would take a few minutes from the jects were called "federal workers" and needed an organi­ By this means hundreds of electric co-ops brought re­ hectic pace of activity in the headquarters to talk to us zation like a trade union to defend themselves. The FWS latively inexpensive electricity to rural America. Today, farmers. And he seemed really interested in helping the conducted an organizing drive among WPA workers and nearly 99 percent of rural farms and homes have electric­ farmer. Over the years we became very good friends." established a steward system and democratic structure John also noted that they spoke the same language. ity. "We got electricity in 1950," John remarked. much like that of Local 574. "He came from Sweden and his Swedish and my Norwe­ John was elected a steward of the FWS in Renville He pointed out that today, "Many of the co-ops have gian sounded just about the same. Whenever I talked seri­ County, which he said "was a very active unit. We con­ become profit-making businesses and the consumer­ ously about politics with my dad it was in Norwegian, ducted a strike in Sacred Heart. There were some who members have little or no say and are ripped off. and it was the same with Skogie. "Several years ago, for example, there were giant told me afterwards, 'John, you can't strike against the "I was put up at the Dunne's place that night," John government!' I replied, 'But we did.' " He smiled, "We demonstrations of farmers in this state against a couple of continued. "Vincent Dunne, and his brothers Miles and electric co-ops that were trying to put high tension wires won too." John served as an organizer for the FWS until Grant were also union leaders and members of the CLA. 1937. through farmers' fields, rather than along highway right­ I didn't really get to know them then because they were of-ways. The farmers were angry because they had not John's frrst assignment as an adult education teacher so busy. That came later." was to give some classes in Rochester to a workers edu­ been consulted and believed the high wires to be danger­ During the course of the July-August strike the ous." cation program. "I gave five classes-all on Local 574," Teamsters welded a firm alliance with working farmers. he said. "The woman in charge was very pleased. It was John also noted that another question in the 1930s was An agreement was reached with the market gardeners in the frrst time anyone had come to talk to them about un­ the particular conditions faced by tenant farmers. "In the Twin Cities area that permitted them to drive through ionism. Minnesota," he said, "55 to 60 percent of the land in ag­ the picket lines to sell their produce in the city. A new "What I taught depended where! was at," he said. "In ricultural use was rented. Some of us in the Socialist market was built with union help where the farmers could Sacred Heart, for example, classes were on politics. We Party around here thought that the FHA should initiate a sell their fruits and vegetables in better conditions than stationed a couple of old socialists at the door and talked tenant's association. So we pushed this at the Holiday before. In return the farmers volunteered to help provide politics." He laughed. "We organized in other words." area meeting over at Clarkfield. We argued that fighting food for the strike kitchen. He emphasized that "wages" for WPA workers in rural for decent conditions for renters would help all farmers. The Farm Bureau and the Holiday Association joined areas were considerably less than in the big cities. "When The meeting adopted the proposal and I even wrote a the Market Gardeners' Association in soliciting food. they were $90.50 in Minneapolis," he said, "they were model contract - like a union contract - that could be John said that he worked on this campaign. "I remember $64 in Renville County for jobs in adult education pro­ used as a basis for organizing tenants. But this was to­ even going way out to Clinton on the South Dakota bor­ jects." wards the end of the Holiday movement and nothing der to pick up a scrawny cow," he laughed. "There was a His experience with the FWS impressed on him how came of it," he said. good relationship between workers and farmers then. influential Local 574 was in the region. "I remember One of the events that made the deepest mark on John Farmers were willing to give." once there was a conflict in Olivia with the WPA offi­ cials. Max Geldman came out and it was settled just like that. Just the fact that he came convinced them to grant our demands right away. I learned firsthand how honest Teamsters union -lessons for today unionism works," he said. Brookwood Labor College In the 1930s Midwest Teamsters built a National Farm Bureau, and the Market Gar­ John then recounted his experience at the Brookwood powerful and militant union movement deners Association. Labor College in Katonah, New York, just north of New based on the unity of all drivers and the sol­ Teamster Rebellion, 192 pp., $4.95 York City. Brookwood was established in 1921 as a resi­ idarity of the farmers. Farrell Dobbs, one of dent school for workers. Generally the students wer'e Teamster Power, 255 pp., $5.95 the central leaders of the Tearristers' or­ union members financed by scholarships from their Teamster Politics, 256 pp., $5.95 ganizing drive and a longtime .leader of the unions in the hope that they would return better equipped Teamster Bureaucracy, 304 pp., $5.95 Socialist Workers Party, tells how they did it. to work in the labor movement. Until 1933 A.J. Muste served as its educational director. · The first two volumes contain sections on Order from Pathfinder Press, 410 West St., John attended the school for four months in the fall of the alliance between the striking Teamsters New York, N.Y. 10014. Please enclose 75 1936. He was one of three chosen by the FHA in Min­ and the Farmers' Holiday Association, the cents for postage. nesota to receive scholarships to attend that session. There were also some farmer activists from other states.

14 The Militant March 25, 1983 March ISR/7

"It was a very useful experience for me," John told us. The AAM's first action was a national strike in De­ "It was my first opportunity to really get to know and cember of that year. Inspired by this revival of the farm work with young workers." protest struggle and by the similarities of the new move­ "What did you study?" we asked. ment with the Holiday Association, John published a "Labor history, journalism, and Marxist works like pamphlet in 1978. Its purpose was to relate some of the Wage-Labor and Capital," John replied. lessons of the Holiday movement to the American Ag John also noted that he had an opportunity during this militants. The pamphlet, John's Letter to Paul took Ute period to get into New York City where he met with lead­ form of a letter to AAM activist Paul Peterson in nearby ers of the SP' s left wing. (In mid-1936 the Workers Party Olivia. had dissolved and joined the Socialist Party. Its members John pointed out that farmers had set out on a new became part of the SP's left wing.) course of action that was to change their lives and that In the latter half of 1937, the left wing branches were would lead to new political realignments. expelled from the party . They established the Socialist He confidently predicted that farmers will not be Workers Party at a New Year's convention in Chicago. alone. "Sure," he wrote, "on the surface our protests do John pointed out that in Minnesota the left wing domi­ seem contained, but there are few among us who do not nated the party. When the expulsions came the Min­ feel the resentment against what we see amongst us - neapolis, St. Paul, and Austin chapters had their charters that resides just beneath the surface among the steelwork­ lifted by the party's national leadership. ers, the miners, the teachers, among us farmers and the John, who had been a member of the SP since the late common people in general. . . . " 1920s, was part of the left wing that was expelled. He at­ John praised the democratic functioning of the AAM tended the SWP founding convention as a delegate. and suggested the formation of organizing committees as He noted that in 1937 before the leftwing was expelled a democratic form that could draw in the broadest range from the SP, he wrote a farm resolution that was adopted of forces behind the strike. by the Minneapolis branch. It was submitted to the SP na­ "We have to realize that this is the biggest single strike tional convention but died in the resolutions committee, ever undertaken by farmers," John wrote. "It's on in all even though it had the backing of the Southern Tenant Gentle Rebels/Hershel Wilson the 50 states. And to take on mobilizing about 2.8 million Farmers Union and socialist farmers in other states. American Agriculture Movement (AAM) tractorcade farmers is a gigantic undert_aking." A farm resolution presented by reformist leader Harry in Washington, D.C., in 1979. Enestvedtjumped in to Laidler from New York City was approved instead. support new rise in farmer militancy when AAM was He also pointed to the protest movement against the "There were some who called Laidler the 'Fifth Avenue organized in 1977. Vietnam War as an example of how taking to the streets farmer from New York,'" John said. becomes necessary when issues are of the greatest con~ cern and how such action can be effective. "Thousands of Holiday movement derailed in the stockyards attempted to stop trucks carrying live- farmers must have opposed the war effort," he noted. He pointed to the number of farms threatened with We asked John what happened to the Holiday move­ stock. ') John explained that sometimes the scab trucks mortgage foreclosure, foreseeing a target that in the past ment. He explained that at the end of 1937 it merged with year.has become central to the AAM and new local farm the NFU. "I think this was a big mistake, and I opposed wouldn't be turned around simply by talk; they needed sterner means of persuasion. . groups that are springing up. He recounted the experi­ it at the time. Here, in Minnesota; the Holiday was much ence of the Holiday movement in using debt adjustment bigger than the Farmers Union. At the state amalgama­ "I remember over in Montevideo," he said, "we took a few pick-up trucks and welded a three-quarter inch piece committees. tion convention we had three times as many people as the John has continued to remain active. He has partici­ Farmers Union. The NFU had always opposed militant of shafting into the back end of each one. And we put lights on them. Then we'd drive along at night. When we pated in protests against foreclosure sales in western action to stop foreclosures. A condition of the fusion was Minnesota. "Just after the elections (November 1982) ," to limit direct action." saw a scab truck we'd drive in front of it, line up the shafting with its front end, and brake a few times. They'd he said, "some 75 of us surprised the Federal Land Bank The Communist Party was very active in the NFU at office in Sauk Centre, regarding a foreclosure that was the time, he said. This was a reversal of the CP's position get the idea real quick and hightail it home. We stopped everything into Montevideo." ' coming up because some farmer owed $435 that was past in the farmers' movement in the late 1920s and early due. We came up with a good· settlement for now." 1930s. Then it had an ultraleft, sectarian position. It at­ He went on to describe other creative methods that tempted to establish. its own.Jarrn organization and. at­ were used to convince scab truckers to keep off the road. He maintains an active correspondence with other tacked the Holiday movement. The Farmer-Labor Party We asked if there '":as any· support from the labor farmer activists and with local newspapers. He persis­ was labeled "social-fascist." The CP changed its position movement. "The Teamsters in Marshall solidarized with tently tries to orient activists toward a course of indepen­ in 1935 in favor of trying to establish a broad ·:popular our picket lines," he said. "And rail workers on the Mil­ dence from capitalist politics and of linking up with the front" behind Roosevelt. waukee Road in Montevideo stopped their trains. We put labor movement. He attempts to win farmers to the per­ up a picket line right on the track there. Somebody said "The CP pushed for the merger of the NFU and the spective of an independent labor party. "I've learned a lot Holiday," John said. "It was part of their whole political we couldn't stop a train. I said, 'The hell we can't!' We in my years in the farmers' movement," he said, "but stood there with picket signs and train got up to us, perspective of eventually merging the FLP with the Dem­ a these points are the most important." ocratic Party. They were becoming more and more in­ stopped, and the crew cut off the engine. We then gave In a letter to me since our interview, John reported that fluential in the FLP and supported its reformist program. them a ride back to the depot and they went home. The he had just taped a television interview on the farmers' train sat there for two weeks." The merger of the FLP and the Democrats finally occur­ movement that is to be shown in parts of Minnesota. He Two farmer pickets were killed when a group of some red in 1944." further indicated that he was helping to set up a meeting 500 NFO members and supporters attempted to halt a In 1939 or so, John explained, the situation began to for El Salvador trade union leader Alejandro Molina Lara truck at the Equity Livestock Yards in Bonduel, Wiscon­ get better for farmers and generally stayed that way for in Montevideo. sin. They were crushed to death by the vehicle. the next couple of decades. Farmer protests declined In spite of the farmers' militancy, the NFO holding ac­ greatly. tion didn't lead to any contracts. "We did all the things Internationalism John started to farm again .• He was able to get a gov­ that you should do to win," John observed. "But the na­ John is a true internationalist who believes that the ac­ ernment loan and by the end of World War II had bought tional leadership didn't back us up. When state officials and paid for his farm. complishments of working people in other countries is a decided to escort trucks through the lines, it could have source of inspiration for exploited producers in this coun­ John Is also a skilled machinist and carpenter and dur­ been stopped if the leadership said, .. No. We're not going ing these years did a lot of off-the-farm work in construc­ try. to let the trucks go through.' Instead they called off the In a letter written last May, he praised the Militant for tion. He is a craftsman who takes a great deal of pride in strike on October 1. doing a job right. Two neighbors have spiral staircases in its international coverage. "I particularly like the reports "When the Wisconsin farmers were killed," John said, on goings on in Cuba, Grenada, and Nicaragua. Farmers their homes that he built. "we urged the NFO respond by stopping milk too. But In 1971, when the Socialist Workers Party was estab­ are being foreclosed on here, as are workers in the city, the officials wouldn't do it. They wouldn't even help the while land and farms are being turned over to workers lishing a new national headquarters in New York, John families of those who were killed. Here in the Sixth C. D. came in to build a magnificent spiral staircase between and farmers in these socialist countries: a decided we adopted a resolution urging national support to those economic plus to these workers as against a decided two floors in the building. families." He insisted that Jay and I see his workshop where he minus for us here. Workers can see what a class-con­ Opposition to the national leadership's policies was scious program on behalf of working people has done for has a wide assortment of power tools, many that he has particularly strong in Minnesota. An NFO Victory Com­ rebuilt himself. Cubans, Nicaraguans, and Grenadians. . . . mittee was established that fought for a winning strategy. "This is what the strong internationalism of Cuba, next Like many farmers these days, he also has an ap­ Its main proposals were the need for spreading the strike paratus for making fuel alcohol from com. door to the world's most powerful imperialist power adds and making a bigger effort to seek the support of the or­ up to. It is a true contest between what socialism really is ganized labor movement. It fought for this perspective at Back on the picketline offering its working people, as against imperialism's the Minnesota state NFO convention that fall and won a program of mass deprivation and world wars leading to a In the 1960s farmer protests again burst onto the politi­ lot of support. At the national convention in Minneapolis nuclear burnout of all life." cal scene. The National Farmers Organization launched in December the Victory Committee waged a campaign In a more recent letter, he confidently added that, "A "holding actions." Their aim was to try to get a better for its proposals and unsuccessfully ran a candidate for real binding relationship between workers and farmers price at the marketplace. president against incumbent Oren Lee Staley. can be forged like there was in the October Revolution in In addition to his NFO responsibilities, during the ·~I jumped right into that," John said. "I was publicity Russia. The development has been slow, but it has been director of the NFO for the Sixth Congressional District, holding actions, John organized discussions between consistent: Cuba, Nicaragua, El Salvador, etc. striking farmers and Everett Luoma, the SWP candidate or what was then the Sixth C.D. I was very active. "Yes, there will be a workers and farmers government Whenever there was a holding action in the area I would for U.S. Senate in the 1964 elections. Support to the holding actions featured prominently in the SWP's elec­ in the United States too. It is only a matter of time. participate." "The good things that have happened to workers and Farmers in Renville County weren't as solid behind the tion campaign in Minnesota that year. farmers have been the result of workers and farmers. But "The NFO still exists," John said, "but it never re­ NFO as they were the Holiday movement, John ob­ I have learned that until the workers move, the movement gained its momentum and was unable to respond to the served. "But in the neighboring counties it was very of farmers fizzles out. No one has aided, nor will they new situation at the end of the 1970s and in the 1980s. I strong." come to the aid of the farmer, except the workers. With­ dropped out some years ago." In August and September 1964 a holding action was out this unity, my experience tells me that there can be no held that spread to 23 states from the Rocky Mountains American Agriculture Movement victory for workers ·and farmers - and no further prog­ to the East Coast. It focused on forcing meat-packing ress for mankind on planet earth. Through the united ef­ companies to sign contracts setting satisfactory minimum John has been an active supporter of the American Ag­ fort of workers and farmers everything is possible. With­ prices for livestock. Farmer pickets on the highways and riculture Movement (AAM) since it was formed in 1977. out it, nothing is possible."

Mlll"ch 25,, 1983 15, International Socialist Jtevievv..______M_a_u_h __I_sw __ s

system itself and thus served to verify the correctness of their findings concerning the main tendencies. Joseph Hansen: is Marxism-Leninism obsolete? 8) Marx's forecasts concerning the future society are not of primary importance but are logical derivatives Continued from ISR Page 4 Marx was fully aware of the role of chance and proba­ from his analysis ofcapitalist society. They can only pro­ technology and the possibilities this opens up for more bility not only in the determination of such economic vide general indications about the nature of the future productive organization of the labor process. This criter­ categories as prices but in the outcome of specific events transitional society and its ultimate culmination in a com­ ion of productive powers, of increased efficiency of in the class struggle. It is not necessary to read very far in munist classless society of such abundance as to defini­ labor, provides a solid objective basis for determining Capital to discover this. A good example in the frrst tively end the millenia of poverty, with all its attendant progress, whatever one's opinion may be of the dominant chapter is Section 3 on the development of money from restrictions and evils. His forecasts do not have an cultural values of a given time. its lowly origin in accidental acts of barter. idealistic, utopian, or dogmatic character. They do not In our epoch of the production expert, the time-study Mendel's analogy is defective even if we accept it at depend upon preconceptions of human nature other than man, and such an outpouring and development of labor­ face value. Twentieth-century developments have re­ a judgment of its demonstrated capacity to adjust within saving devices as to give rise to the tenn, "cybernetic rev­ stricted but not nullified the validity of the Newtonian certain limits to the economic systems in which people olution," the key role of technology and the organization of mechanics. The laws of classical mechanics and quantum find themselves. Still less do Marx's extrapolations in­ the labor process as the foundation for broadening man­ physics apply to different levels of phenomena. Is Men­ volve any "best" system under which to live. kind's access to culture, leisure time, and more bountiful del willing then to grant that Marx's scientific socialism Marx's vision of the future is drawn from logically ex­ well-being seems obvious to the point of banality. Not so holds up as well as does classical mechanics in the field tending the socialization of the labor process, the ad­ with those who would debate with Marx. For them "free in which classical mechanics applies? The erudite vance of science and technology, and the concomitant enterprise," "free competition," "the public interest," academician should think this over carefully. tendency to introduce planning on a massive scale. While and similar spirits still rule man's economic enterprise. capitalism has given enormous impetus to these trends, it 3) Scientific socialism recognizes the k!!Y role played Not a set of dogmas has kept them within property forms based in principle on by the classstruggle. While Marx and Engels were not 7) Scientific socialism is not a set of dogmas. The es­ the individual ownership of the means of production. the frrst to perceive the class struggle or its economic sence of scientific socialism is contained in Marx's This bars science from being properly and thoroughly roots, they did establish a firm basis for exploring its ma­ dialectical materialist method, for this makes it possible utilized in organizing the economy, maintains the econo­ terial basis and its multiple ramifications, not only in to analyze new developments in objective reality. It is not my on an anarchistic level, and preserves competitive politics, government, and the state, but in remoter fields surprising that some of today's developments were un­ forms that become more and more explosive and destruc­ such as art and literature. foreseen by Marx or foreseen unclearly or one-sidedly; tive, particularly on the international arena. It is not too difficult·to determine the interests of the by following his procedures the necessary adjustments If these limitations, which are a heritage of the primi­ various classes in a completely objective way. What can be made and the body of Marxist theory enriched. tive stage of commodity production from which statesman in his real calculations proceeds today other­ Scientific socialism maintains its scientific character by capitalism evolved, were to be removed, the socialized wise than on the basis of such calculation? If the tangle hospitality to historical novelties and its capacity to rec­ labor process, the principle of planning, the development of class interests appears obscure at times, every sharp ognize and incorporate them. (We leave aside the ques­ of technology, and the application of science would ena­ struggle generally brings clarification, often to very wide tion of the quacks and cultists who profess to be "Marx- ble society as a whole to surge forward at a truly revolu­ layers. ists.") . tionary rate. 4) Scientific socialism is historical. Marx's procedure Little is said about Marx's method- the heart of sci­ The beneficent ramifications in all fields can scarcely enabled him to establish that capitalism had its origin in entific socialism- by those who try to demolish his con­ be calculated. It would be pointless to attempt to vis­ qualitatively different preceding social systems. If this ir­ clusions. Even the once-current fashion of assailing Marx ualize them in detail in any case, since this will be the ritates certain bourgeois ideologists who refuse to ac­ for his "Hegelianism" is dying out. (It has been replaced work of future generations. The paramount task of the knowledge anything less than timelessness for the condi­ by efforts to pit the young "humanist" Marx against the present generation is to carry out the political and social tions of their system, the burden of proof is on them to Marx of Capital.) His foes today generally rest theircase revolution necessary to establish the basis for these de­ show how such a common, ordinary phenomenon as at) either on the fact that some of the trends in capitalism ob­ velopments. That was the way Marx viewed the connec­ economic system - merely a way of organizing the col­ served by Marx have been checked in some countries by tion of the present with the future. lective labor process - can be immune to the universal countertrends (the impoverishment of the masses) or 9) Scientific socialism is rational. This striking law of change affecting everything else. trends which he did not anticipate (the rise of a new mid­ characteristic has constituted its greatest appeal to those It is not sufficient to point to the invariants of "human dle class). Their trump card is the point that, although able to transcend the narrow outlook associated with nature." Anthropologists have provided abundant evi­ Marx predicted that capitalism would be overturned by capitalism and the moods of pessimism and irrationalism dence on how variable human characteristics and the working class, the goal still remains to be achieved al­ generated by its decay. Marxism offers a supremely ra­ capacities are. Marx's conclusions were derived from a most a century and a quarter after the Communist Man­ tional insight into the entire rise and decline of the period most thorough study of the origin of capitalism as well as ifesto. of class struggles. This view in turn provides a realistic the inherent tendencies of this least stable and most dis­ basis for ascertaining the most fruitful way .to expend ruptive of all economic systems. Where Marx has been fully confrrmed with the passage of time, as in his conclusions on the accumulation and one's own efforts and make a positive contribution to­ Thus Marx was able to offer a rational explanation for concentration of capital expressed in the dominance of ward bringing this difficult and painful epoch to a close. the periodic appearance of revolutions - those great up­ big business and high finance, the extension of the facto­ In addition to its political effectiveness, the serious stu­ surges of collective energy that have at times taken hu­ ry system, the introduction of laborsaving machinery, the dent of Marxism can receive incomparably rich and re­ manity forward at great speed, toppling or engulfing domination of the state by the capitalist class, the disrup­ warding insights into the philosophical, cultural, artistic, every obstacle in their path. tive expansion of the capitalist system, its explosive con­ and even psychological phenomena of our times. The bourgeois ·view ·that capitalism is timeless, or tradictions, and so on, they remain silent. everlasting, compels its theorists, if they are to be consis­ They brush aside and devaluate the material accumu­ Fresh acquisitions tent, to view revolutions as irrational and unnecessary, lated, sifted, analyzed; placed in logical order, and ex­ 10) Scientific socialism is not averse to innovations even the revolutions in which their own system was born plained by Marx in his study of the processes of the capi­ but welcomes fresh acquisitions. Among the most - notto speak of the revolutions bringing it to a close. talist system as valid for the capitalism of his day, but not noteworthy developments based on Marx's contributions 5) Scientific socialism takes an overall view. Marx ap­ for -the capitalism of our time. They make out the des­ are Lenin's analysis of the imperialist stage of capitalism, -proached his subject in its totality, as a development in cendants of the pirates, slave traders, and robber barons now shaping the major course of world politics, and time with a beginning and an end. With the establishment to be a placid and benevolent lot. Unlike their pro­ Trotsky's theory of "permanent revolution" which offers of its time limits, the capitalist system can thus be com­ genitors, [the modern capitalists] are concerned about so~ an explanation of why capitalism, in the opening stages pared both with the systems that preceded it and the one cial security from the cradle to the grave for those who of the world socialist revolution, has tended to succumb succeeding it, insofar as the latter can be foreseen by ex­ dwell in the slums and ghettos of home, while their inter­ at its fringes rather than in the major center!! of industrial, trapolating the development of technology, the organiza­ est in other countries centers around-the welfare and de­ fmancial and political power. tion of the labor process, and the modifications in the so­ mocratic rights of the teeming poor to be found there, Lenin also contributed valuable teachings on the ques­ cial structure that have occurred under capitalism (con­ particularly those inhabiting the colonial regions en- tion of oppressed nationalities, the political alliance of stant strengthening of the social weight of the proletariat dowed with rich natural resources. ·· the workers with the peasantry, and the building of a at the expense of all other classes). Is it more humane, or a mark of progress, to burn little combat party to lead the masses to attainment of political From the viewpoint of the survival, well-being, and children with napalm than to work them from dawn to power. advancement of the human species, a basis is thereby dusk in the mills? Trotsky's anillyses of the nature of Stalinism and of provided for judging how far mankind has come from its What Marx offered is not a mere expose of the excess­ fascism were further important additions. animal origins. If we utilize as our measure the gains es committed by the capitalists of his day in carrying the Most important of all, Marxism-Leninism did notre­ made in modifying or controlling natural processes, then logic of their system to extremes, but an analysis of the main a mere theory, a set of formulas and studies con­ progress has certainly been made. Furthermore the nature material basis of that logic; i.e. , the processes governing fined to the shelves of libraries. It helped direct the Oc­ of the progress can be stated in objective, verifiable terms the operation of this system. The significance of the ex­ 'tober Revolution, actually establish a postcapitalist state, (growth of productive power, population, knowledge, posures he and Engels made of the English factories in and successfully defend that revolution and workers' etc.). The laws governing the processes giving rise to this the past century is that the evils - whether in extreme or state against a sea of foes. This remains an imperishable progress can be stated·in a similar way. ameliorated form - were inherent in the working of the example of the verification of theory by actual practice. Arguments to the contrary must, in the final analysis, advance norms of a subjective nature such as the "losses" entailed by the development of civilization. For Further Reading Dialectical 6) Scientific socialism is dialectical. Marx's proce­ Collected Works of Marx and Selected Correspondence of The Communist Manifesto, dure makes it possible in principle to study in a fruitful Engels, vols. 1-14, 16-18, 38. Marx and Engels. $4.45. with introduction by Leon way reciprocal actions, modifying forces, countertenden­ $12.50 each. Trotsky. $.95. cies, and combinations of the most varied nature. It is a Marx and Engels Through the gross distortion or misunderstanding of Marx's scientific Selected Works of Marx and Eyes of Their Contemporaries. Karl Marx and His Teachings, socialism to say, as Arthur P. Mendel does in the October Engels, 3-vol. set. $15.00. $2.95. by V. I. Lenin. $.75. 1966 Foreign Affairs ("The Rise and Fall of 'Scientific Sociillism' "), that it "represents a transposition into Marxism in Our Time, by Leon sociologicill and historicill tenninology of classical Order from Pathfinder Press, 410 West Street, New York, N.Y. Trotsky. $1.25. mechanics, now radicillly undermined by the theories of 10014. Please include 75 cents for postage. · relativity, quantum physics, probability and interdeter­ minacy."

16 The Militant March 25, 1983 UAW chiefs' policies tie union's hands

Japanese engines as well as other imported Fraser knows what the only rational al­ parts. The same goes for Chrysler and Mit­ ternative for our union is - to break with subishi engines. the parties of the companies and launch our Iron Age, the steel bosses' magazine, own party, a labor party. also reports that "in 1981, 35 percent of GM's vehicle production and 25 percent of 'Now not the time' its sales were outside the U.S. Fifty-seven percent of Ford's and 22 percent of Like Reuther did, Fraser threatens (and Chrysler's production were outside the · we can expect the same from Bieber) to do U.S." just that sometimes. The last time was in .This is why the auto companies aren't 1978 ~ Fraser said then that the companies pushing for a domestic content law. were carrying out "one-sided class war" "We're not lobbying for and we're not lob­ against the working class. He said Jimmy bying against local content," said one GM Carter and the Democrats were not doing spokesman. "We agree with the United anything to 'stop it. When auto workers Autoworkers that the Japanese should pro­ asked him then if we should launch our vide jobs and pay taxes in the country own party, Fraser's reply. was, "Now is not where they sell. But unlike the UAW, we the time." don't want to see the thing made into an in­ Of course, the time will never be right Militant/Henry flexible law." Douglas Fraser (left), president of UA . At right, Owen Bieber, UA W president-de­ for Fraser and the other top officials who signate. They seek cooperation with bosses, leaving auto workers defenseless against What they prefer, of course, are the make up the union's bureaucracy-the so­ "voluntary" import restraints the Japanese employers' attacks. , ciallayer that identifies more with the boss automakers have reluctantly agreed to for than with the assembly line worker. the last two years. Fraser says it would help the American The bureaucracy's approach is to use the BY ELIZABETH ZIERS The UA W leadership needs to answer capitalists until they are on their feet again potential power of the union ranks, like a Third in a series this question: How logical is it for union and can "compete fairly" with the giant it keeps chained, to put pressure on Last week we traced the class col­ leaders to sign concession contracts so the Japanese. the employers and the government. Then, laborationist policies of the United Auto employers can increase their profits, and Once again, Fraser is trying to convince perhaps, they will throw a few more Workers (UAW) officialdom through the then say the employers shouldn't buy the us that if things go well for the capitalists, crumbs to the union. period of Walter Reuther's presidency of cheapest parts possible to increase their they'll go well for the workers. Now even the crumbs are getting fewer the union. That policy, based on cooperat­ profits? ing with the employers at the expense of and farther between. We need jobs, mil­ The UA W's approach fails on two It is futile for a union to try to create jobs lions of them. The only way we can "save" the-workers, has continued since Reuther's counts. First, the capitalists' main objec­ by influencing the capitalists to invest here death in 1970. or "create" jobs is by forcing the employ­ tive, always, is to reap profits by any in auto and auto-related industries. ers' government to provide them. Today, UAW President Douglas Fraser, means necessary, particularly at our ex­ Capitalists will put their investment money soon to be replaced by Owen Bieber, has pense. Their aim is not to save jobs or pro­ where. they can make the most profit. The policy of class collaboration, how­ introduced some innovations in the strat­ tect our living standard. Second, U.S. Period. ever, makes it impossible for the UAW egy of the union bureaucracy, but the end workers cannot get ahead at the expense of leadership to effectively defend our in­ result is the same: company profits are workers in Japan, Europe, or Latin The fraud of voting Democratic terests as the companies deal us blows. It is boosted, workers' wages are reduced, and America, who, just like ourselves, must why they come up with "concession" con­ the union is weakened. sell their labor power for a living. The UAW top leadership, and that of all tracts, like at Chrysler, and try to ram them unions in the United States, .has always down our throats. 'Quality of Work Life' kept the union membership's program, It is why these misleaders of our union votes, and CAP (Community Action Pro­ must be replaced by leaders committed to This is what the Quality of Work Life 'Foreign' content gram) money tied to the Democratic Party. · class-struggle policies. (QWL) and Employee Involvement circles Some imported commodities are cheaper This goes back to the struggle over political What this fightback course should be pushed by· some union officials and the for us to buy, including car parts. Ford perspectives at the second UA W conven­ and how to go about building an alternative companies are all about. Supposedly the bought 25 percent of Toyo Kogyo (Mazda) tion in 1936. purpose is to increase communication be­ leadership will be the focus of the next ar­ partly because it could get cheaper parts From then on, the general policy of the ticle. tween workers and the company. Many from them. GM owns 34.2 percent oflsuzu top leaders, which was opposed by a mili­ To be continued workers see them for what they are: a plan and 5. 3 percent of Suzuki in order to im­ tant minority at the 1936 convention, has to weaken the unions just like the labor­ port cheap minicars. And, of course, GM's always been to vote Democratic. Their · Elizabeth Ziers is a member of UA W Local management committees of the World War new deal with Toyota to produce subcom­ explanation: "They're a lesser evil than the II era. 600 and laid offfrom Ford's Rouge plant pacts in Fremont, California, aims to use Republicans." outside Detroit. If we have to sit down and discuss qual­ ity and production problems with the fore­ men, that puts the blame on us. Solution: work harder to increase profits. The work­ ers get to make suggestions, but only the Grenada mobilizes against threat foremen can give the orders. QWL circles are one more step down the Continued from front page "In every single case of a revolution tion were eventually authorized, Bishop re­ road of treating workers' grievances like so central committee of the Cuban Com­ around the world, imperialism has re­ called the June 1980 bomb that exploded much paper work, and workers' represen­ munist Party and exminister of construc­ sponded not only by counterrevolutionary beneath the speakers platform at a rally in tatives like attorneys. As one worker in my tion, was an honored guest at the event, propaganda and lies, not only by economic this city's Queens Park. plant said at a union meeting discussion of along with the Cuban workers and en­ aggression, but also by armed invasion. That explosion did not kill its intended Employee Involvement, "Why do you gineers who assisted Grenada in building That is the lesson we must draw from the victims, the entire central New Jewel keep telling me to sit down and talk to the the plant. experience of other revolutions. Movement leadership who were scheduled foremen like civilized people? The fore­ "It is one thing for Reagan to say that to be seated on the platform. It did, how­ man is not civilized." "The imperialists have tried therr prop­ U.S. imperialism doesn't like our foreign aganda in Grenada," Bishop stated. "They ever, injure many in the crowd and killed three young girls. policy," Grenada's Deputy Prime Minister have tried their economic aggression. And Domestic Content law Prime Minister Bishop explained that Bernard Coard told the rally. "It is one in both cases they have been severely the deteriorating political and military situ- - For two years, the UA W officialdom has thing for him to say that they don't like our beaten by our people. been trying to get a Local Domestic Con­ economic path of development. "So now they are forced to resort to ation for the U.S.-backed Salvadoran re­ gime is a prime reason for Washington's tent law passed by Congress. If such a law "But it is altogether another thing," armed aggression." is adopted, they argue, it will require that Coard emphasized, "to say that another stepped-up threats. for every 10,000 vehicles sold, one percent country is a threat to your national sec­ U.S. military build up Washington is "afraid of the example of of the components of the vehicles must be urity." Such threats and provocations, he Grenada in the rest of the English-speaking made by or involve American workers. A said, are "the closest thing to a declaration Bishop and Coard pointed to a pattern of Caribbean," Coard said. The Grenadian company selling 100,001 vehicles would of war without declaring war." public attacks on Grenada by U.S. officials economy grew by 5.5 percent in 1982, have to have 10 percent domestic content; Coard explained how Washington had over the past several months. These in­ while those of the governments "who have and one selling 900,000 (the ceiling), 90 lied in the middle 1960s about a North Clude a speech by Vice-president George been acting as stooges for imperialism in percent. Vietnamese attack on a U.S. ship in the Bush in Miami in January and recent state­ the region are going from crisis to crisis." ments by Defense Secretary Caspar Wein­ This is the real reason that the U.S. gov­ The UAW leadership claims a domestic Gulf of Tonkin to justify an all-out war berger and Deputy Assistant Defense Sec­ ernment is so upset about Cuban aid to content law would result in jobs created or against the people of that country. He re­ retary Nestor Sanchez. Grenada too. "What Reagan is really afraid preserved in the auto and related industries called false White House claims last year They also pointed out that new U.S. of Cuba for is not primarily its military with the ripple effect in the economy bring­ of Soviet bases and an alleged massive mil­ naval maneuvers involving 36 war ships aid," Coard said. "It's the economic aid ing the total impact to more than one mil­ itary build up in Nicaragua just before the and more than 300 planes began off the that drives him crazy. In health, in educa­ lion jobs. major escalation of U.S.-backed counter­ revolutionary activity along the Honduran coast of Puerto Rico on March 11 ; in Au­ tion, in housing, in building the new inter­ border. gust 1981 the United States staged "Opera­ national airport to make our country inde­ The surprise speaker at the end of the tion Amberines," which included a mock pendent, in scholarships to our youth to Subscribe to rally was Prime Minister Maurice Bishop, invasion of a small Caribbean island obvi­ learn medicine, engineering, and other who within the hour had landed at the is­ ously meant to be Grenada. skills to develop our country." land's Pearl's Airport following his return In addition, in the vicinity of Grenada The next day, March 13, opened with a the 'Militant' flight from the Seventh Summit of the today there are five docked U.S. naval ves­ military parade. Grenadian army troops, Nonaligned Movement in New Delhi. police, militia members, and cadets were This article is part of a series. dealing sels - in Antigua, Trinidad, Dominica, Bishop told the crowd, "by these words, reviewed by Prime Minister Bishop and with the big questions facing auto work­ and Barbados - as well as Britain's HMS and by the unremitting attacks on our revo­ other leaders of the revolutionary govern­ ers and members of other industrial Invincible used last year in its colonial re­ lution since its victory, Ronald Reagan is conquest of the Malvinas Islands from ment. unions under the current offensive by clearly signalling that imperialism is get­ Argentina. The most immediate task, Bishop said, the bosses. Don't miss the rest of this ting ready for an all-out assault against our The New Jewel Movement leaders also was that those who had signed up for the series and other coverage of the labor revolutionary process." called attention to the recent revelation in militia and later dropped away, feeling that movement For $3 you can receive the Calling attention to the examples of rev­ the Washington Post of CIA plots to over­ the revolution was secure, now should re­ next 12 issues. Hll in the subscription olutions in El Salvador, Nicaragua, south­ throw the revolutionary government of join. He urged all those able to learn the blank on page 2. em Africa, Palestine, and Indochina, Grenada. While U.S. officials claim that use of weapons to join the militia, be they Bishop continued: only propaganda and economic destabiliza- young or old.

March 25, 19~ The Militant 17 ·- ·U.S. OUT OF CENTRAL AMERICA AND CARIBBEAN!----. The report singles out the at­ California, Berkeley, Calif. Churches tacks on the University of El Sal­ 94704. otTer aid vador, once responsible for almost all higher education in the country to refugees and a ·center of opposition to the dictatorship . . Puerto Rican BY MICHAEL FRAYER troops used MILWAUKEE - Two Mil­ The military seized and ran­ waukee churches are now offering sacked the school on June 26, in 'Big Pine' 1980. "The closure of the Univer- · sanctuary to refugees fleeing sity campus was accompanied by a U.S.-backed terror in El Salvador Latinamerica Press reports that and Guatemala. campaign of repression against several groups have spoken out In violation of its own academics and students," says the against the use of Puerto Rican guidelines the State Department report. It notes the assassination of National Guard units in the joint refuses to grant Salvadorans and Rector Felix Ulloa in October U.S.-Honduran military manuev­ Guatemalans refugee status. More 1980. ers on the Nicaraguan border. This than 22,000 Salvadorans have Today, the report explains, operation, code-named Ahuas Ta­ applied for asylqm over the past "The University . . . operates in ra or "Big Pine," was conducted two years. Only 76 of these re­ small buildings throughout the in February and was aimed at in­ quests have been granted. Government soldiers during 1980 siege of University of El Salvador. capital, working only with those timidating the Nicaraguan revolu­ Churches in Los Angeles, Tuc­ students enrolled in classes at the tion. It was a dangerous exercise son; Seattle, and Chicago are also time of the campus seizure .... in preparing a possible full-scale offering sanctuary in an attempt to official in El Salvador, you can Salvador. Antonio has been in­ In February it will open its many invasion of Nicaragua. rented doors to new students, as help these refugees. In Milwaukee expect repression. vited to speak to several local This recent use of the Puerto Ri­ we were proudly informed by the two more churches were sched­ "We were going to have a meet­ union meetings · in the coming can National Guard is viewed as rector, Dr. Manual Angel uled to become sites of refuge in ing at 10:00 a.m. with another months. part of a growing tendency to use Parada." March. Those who participate in union federation to discuss com­ the guard to aid regular branches Attacks on the school are con­ the program in any way face possi­ mon problems. When I was two of the U.S. armed forces in mil­ tinuing, however. The univer­ ble U.S. prosecution. blocks away I saw two army vehi­ Faculty group itary operations in Latin America. Antonio, a member of the cles. Then I heard guns go off. sity's budget was cut 50 percent . Groups protesting included the hits Salvadoran last year and this year, "another executive board of his local of the They had killed the union secret­ Puerto Rican Socialist Party, the cut is expected to take half of what Municipal Workers Union in El ary and another member and took Puerto Rican Committee in Soli­ dictatorship is left," says the report. Salvador, is one of those currently 11 others tied and blindfolded. darity with Nicaragua, the Interna­ being given sanctuary in Mil­ Later they were found machine­ "We found the entire educa­ The government's attacks on tionalist Workers League, the Na­ waukee. gunned." tional system devastated," begins the secondary school system and tional Ecumenical Movement, and At a recent meeting of Mil­ Antonio and other refugees who the preliminary report issued by a the ferocious repression directed the American Friends Service waukee labor officials, Antonio have been given sanctuary have delegation to El Salvador spon­ against ANDES , the teachers Committee. explained the conditions that force spoken at several public meetings sored by the Faculty for Human union, are also reported. ANDES Catholic Bishop Antulio Parril­ Salvadoran workers to flee their including a program com­ Rights in El Salvador and Central has been driven underground and la denounced the exercises and homel~d . "We tried to get better memorating the birthday of Dr. America. The delegation included 277 of its members have been said that the U.S. is using Puerto conditions for · the workers. And Martin Luther King Jr.; a rally of Paul Reinert, S. J. , chancellor, killed. Ricans as "cannon fodder" just as for that reason I was threatened by 300 protesting cuts in unemploy­ University of St. Louis, and Ches­ Copies of the report are availa­ it did in Korea and Vietnam. the army. My name was put on a ment benefits; and at activities ter Wickwire, chaplain, Johns ble from FACHRES-CA, 613 Compiled by death list. When you're a union protesting U.S. intervention in El Hopkins University. · Eshelman Hall, University of Geoff Mirelowitz Central America a theme of Int'l Women's Day

BY GEORGE JOHNSON woman responded. The next slide por­ In Atlanta, a Militant Labor Forum fea­ emment ftrmly on their side here. A number of activities held around the trayed Ronald Reagan in full cowboy rega­ tured two socialist activists who recently In Cranford, New Jersey, the National country to celebrate International W om­ lia lying on a hammock. The crowd broke toured Nicaragua. Organization for Women held a talk on en's Day (March 8) focused on the role of into laughter and applause. One of the socialists, Sonja Franeta, said Nicaragua by a representative of Casa women in the revolutionary struggles in Revolutionary Nicaragua was singled that "to understand why women have Nicaragua March 6. The event was spon­ Central America and the Caribbean. · out as the only Central American country played such a vital role in the transforma­ sored by NOW's Women Against Nuclear In Albuquerque more than 200 people, where the government is committed to the tion of Nicaragua, we must understand that Power Task Force. most of them women, attended a March 6 fight for the liberation of women. it was social conditions that gave rise to In New York several actions were held, event sponsored by Las Compafi.eras, a The last slides showed how bringing their strength and activity." women's Central America solidarity or­ including one sponsored by New York women into the fight for their rights and in Former Nicaraguan dictator Somoza, NOW, the Coalition of Labor Union ganization. defense of the revolution has brought she said, "not only damaged the people's There were two slide shows, the first on Women, and several trade unions .. A Nicaraguan women forward. Women's lib­ material life but their social relations as number of women members of Local23-25 women in Nicaragua, the gains they have eration is not possible without social revo­ well. He killed people's mothers, fathers, made from the revolution there, and their of the International Ladies Garment Work­ lution, the show concluded. husbands, children, and wives." ers Union, many of them Latinas, partici­ contributions to it. The slides were narrated Franeta described women under the old by Lisa Veneklasen, who recently returned In El Mirage, near Phoenix, Arizona, a pated. program sponsored by Centro Adelante regime and the gains they have made since Also in New York was a meeting of sev­ from Esteli, Nicaragua, where she worked the 1979 revolution. She noted that the in the adult education program and was an Campesino March 5 included discussions eral hundred at Medgar Evers College and on the role of women in Nicaragua, El Sal­ Sandinista government firmly supports another at City College of New York in organizer of a pilot agratian reform project. women's rights, having "initiated a nation­ The highlight of the evening was the se­ vador, and Guatemala. Harlem. The latter event drew about 400 This was the fifth year that International al campaign of conscious-raising" about women, most of them Black or Latina, and cond slide show, jBasta Ya! (Enough!). the status of women. Leading government This show pointed to the long hours of Women's Day was celebrated by the Cen­ received a message from AMES, the na­ tro, which is a social center that works officials, she noted, refer to this as a "revo­ tional Salvadoran women's association. labor Central American women perform lution within the revolution." gathering wood, cooking, and cleaning, closely with the Arizona Farmworkers A number of Militant Labor forums, in without modem facilities. Union. The majority of the March 5 celeb­ A woman in the audience told how co­ addition to those reported above, were held Nearly half of Central American women rants were farm. workers, both men and workers at the garment shop where she around International Women's Day. They are also the sole financial supporters of women. works couldn't believe her at ftrst when she included Albuquerque; Cleveland; In­ their families, yet work is hard to find. In addition to a slide show on Nicaragua, told them about aspeech by Tomas Borge, dianapolis; Kansas City, Missouri; Mil­ Women are only a fifth of the permanent other programs were on the triple exploita­ a Sandinista leader, about women's libera­ waukee; Pittsburgh; and San Francisco. work force there. tion of Chicanas and on undocumented tion. Women factory workers earn only three­ women workers. Once they had gotten over their surprise This account is based on reports from fourths of what men get for the same work. The film Salt of the Earth, which was that a government committed to women's Barbara Bowman, Susan Baus, Ellie Gar­ One slide showed a Central American made in 1953 and portrays strikes by New rights could exist, she said, they talked a cia, Laura Garza, Joannie Quinn, and woman answering a question sometimes Mexico miners, closed the program. lot about the possibilities of having a gov- Fred White. heard from North American women: are women in Central America too busy fight­ ing for national liberation to fight machis­ mo? Grenadian gov't official blasts CIA plot "But we are fighting machismo," the BY PETER SEIDMAN lack of concern for human rights. Committee, Wisconsin Committee Against MILWAUKEE - During a two-day "In Grenada," Hurley explained, "we the Draft, and Young Socialist Alliance. It Speech by Nicaraguan tour here, Marilyn Hurley, press and infor­ have elections every day." Policies are de­ was also endorsed by the African Student Commander mation officer of the Grenada Mission to bated and discussed in grassroots parish Union, Black Achievement Organization, the Organization of American States, de­ councils. Within these councils, new con­ La Colectiva, and Native American Stu­ Tomas Borge nounced recently-revealed CIA plans to stitutional forms are being discussed, she dent Movement. overthrow the government of Grenada. said. "But this will take some time. Mean­ Akile Jibari, a participant in the· June while, we won't be rushed or bullied by Wonten and the The Washington Post claims the CIA 1982 National Black Independent Political any country." aborted its plans as a result of heavy oppos­ Party (NBIPP) delegation to Grenada, also Grenadians, Hurley said, had quite ition in the Senate Intelligence Committee. spoke. He urged people to travel to Gre­ Nicaraguan enough of the fake elections staged every But, Hurley warned, "these plans could nada and see first~hand the progress being five years under Gairy with Washington's eventually materialize in reality." made there. blessings. "Politicians would hand out rum Revolution Hurley also protested Washington's re­ and combeef, make promises, and then Hurley and Jibari presented a slide show 30 pp., $. 75. fusal to grant full diplomatic recognition to you'd never see them again," she recalled. at a reception the next night. Among those Order from Pathfinder Press, 410 the ·new government that replaced U.S.­ Hurley appeared at a forum on the Uni­ present were workers from El Salvador and West St., N.Y., N.Y. 10014. Please backed dictator Sir Eric Gairy in a March versity of Wisconsin-Milwaukee campus. Nicaragua, and members of NBIPP, All include $. 75 postage. 1979 popular revolution. Reagan claims Her talk was sponsored by the Black Stu­ African Peoples Party, Socialist Workers his stand is based on Grenada's alleged dent Union, Latin American Solidarity Party, and YSA.

18 The Militant March 25, 1983 U.S.· pushes 'pacification' in El Salvador

Continued from front page cong" were killed. A South Vietnamese suffering and bloodshed for the Salvadoran sions without prior conditions has been that the administration is "going for broke" govelllment estimate put the figure at people and greater direct U.S. military in­ clearly spelled out by the leadership of the with the plan. closer to 50,000. volvement. liberation movement, the Revolutionary For this year alone, Reagan is demand­ If Washington succeeds in carrying But it will not bring victory over the lib­ Democratic Front and the Farabundo ing a total of $136.3 million for military through its "rural pacification" program in eration forces. Marti National Liberation Front. expenditures in El Salvador. Another El Salvador, ·will the results be any differ­ In 1962, 39 percent of the Vietnamese Washington and its puppet Salvadoran $227.1 million is demanded in "economic" ent? population was being held in 4,000 government have responded to this offer aid. Just consider the murders of civilians strategic hamlets. with the declared plan to escalate the Viet­ The new plan will take more Gls, as well being committed by the .Salvadoran namization of the war. as more dollars. Yet the liberation forces continued to in­ army and death squads - murders Wash­ U.S. army and "civilian" (read CIA) flict blows and more and more Gls had to With this, the people of El Salvador will ington refuses to stop. be poured in, reaching a peak, in 1969, of personnel will work with the Salvadoran see even more clearly who wants peace and 535,000. government forces in carrying out the oper­ "Military sources here," one San Sal­ who wants war. They will press even more ation. vador dispatch advises, "anticipate prob­ But they could not prevail. Four years strongly for acceptance of the guerrillas' Lying like thiev.es, administration lems with the paramilitary forces needed to later, Washington had to sign a peace ac­ offer of dialogue. spokespeople present the pacification plan supply security in the latter phases of the cord, and by 197 5 the last GI was gone, en­ ding the bloodbath. And here in the United States, the an­ like a grand social program: "providing program. Such groups have been responsi­ nounced "pacification" plan must be the medical care," "rebuilding schools and ble for many of the atrocities in the coun~ In El Salvador, the liberation forces have signal for an escalation of the struggle to bridges," "creating jobs." tryside that give the government a notori­ repeatedly offered to enter into a dialogue demand U.S. out of El Salvador - let the A brass hat put it more truthfully: ous human rights record." to resolve the conflict without continuing Salvadoran people determine their own "You have got to kill guerrillas." :'Pacification" will surely mean more bloodshed. The offer to enter into discus- destiny. And how would they handle the peasants they succeed in "separating" from the guer­ rillas? One official explained it would be a case of "you are either with us or against us." That's only part of the truth. He should have added: and if we suspect that you may be "against us," you're dead. That was the way they did it in Vietnam. "Rural pacification" was initiated in Vietnam in the late 50s under Eisenhower and pushed ahead by John F. Kennedy. It came to bear the high-sounding name Civi­ lian Operations and Rural Development Support - "CORDS." There the plan was based on establishing "strategic villages"-that is, rural concen­ tration camps. The initial stage, as now proposed for El Salvador, was massive army sweeps to root out the liberation forces. Remaining peas­ ants were rounded up, their homes were de­ stroyed, and they were encamped in hastily thrown up hovels surrounded by barbed wire. To ensure that normal life could be re­ stored outside the "strategic villages" chemical defoliants like Agent Orange were spread wholesale to destroy crops and woodlands. Americans, as well as Viet­ namese, are still dying from that operation. CORDS is recalled by Ralph McGehee in his recent book, Deadly Deceits: My 25 Years in the CIA. He writes that Washington "developed a simple plan to win - force the peasants by the millions into the cities and towns, tum the entire country into a massive police compound, and you deny those millions to the communists." Gen. William Westmoreland, McGehee U.S. troops in EISalvador in front line, Salvadoran paratroop company trained by them in back. said, declared that the peasants and guerril­ las were so closely intertwined that the only way to establish control was to "remove the people." · Roger Hitsman, a Kennedy lieutenant Activists in Puerto Rico threatened who helped shape CORDS, said that "when one throws a barbed-wire fence Puerto Rican Socialist Party leader Juan In another act of political intimidation, a ters of campus security, where he was around a village, when one sets up a cur­ Marl Bras has reported that his son has member of the Internationalist Workers threatened and falsely accused of ftring at few system and fires upon any moving ob­ been the target of anonymous telephone League (LIT), sympathizing organization a police officer. After interrogation, Soto ject outside the fence at that hour, a degree calls, death threats, and persecution. His of the Fourth International, was illegally was released with a warning not to return to of regimentation is implied." property was vandalized. These threats arrested at gunpoint February 17 on the Rio the university campus. Yes, "a degree." against Raul Marl Pesquera are especially Piedras campus of the University of Puerto The following day, the LIT's central of­ A key feature of the CORDS program serious since another son, Santiago Marl Rico. fice and bookstore in Rio Piedras was was "Operation Phoenix." This too was a Pesquera, was murdered March 24, 1976 The LIT member, Alberto Soto Dones, threatened by an anonymous phone caller CIA project. in a political assassination that has never was grabbed by agents of the Criminal In­ who warned that a "bomb has been planted Working with Vietnamese mercenaries, been solved. vestigations Commission and campus sec­ and will go off very soon." Operation Phoenix applied the principle The Puerto Rican independence leader urity guards. He was taken to the headquar- - From Perspectiva Mundial enunciated by the official in El Salvador, noted that these threats come at a time ''You are either with us or against us." when he and his son are working to or­ They systematically exterminated sus­ ganize a new Caribbean news agency. pected guerrillas and guerrilla sympathiz­ Raul Marl has travelled to various coun­ New from Pathfinder Press ers within the controlled areas. tries in the area, including Cuba, in con­ William Colby, a CIA official in charge nection with this new undertaking. Israel's War Against of CORDS, in 1971 congressional tes­ Juan Marl Bras is one of the best known timony, estimated that in the frrst two-and­ independence leaders in Puerto Rico. For the Palestinian People a-half years of Phoenix, 20,587 "Viet- more than two decades he was general sec­ retary of the Movement for Independence By David Frankel and Will Reiss­ (MPI) and later the Puerto Rican Socialist ner. The articles in this pamphlet Party. Both organizations have been the explain the nature of Israel as a col­ Sam Pollock dies target of repeated terrorist attacks. onial-settler state, the character and Right-wing Cuban exile terrorists oper­ history of the Palestinian struggle Sam Pollock, a leading figure in ate with impunity in Puerto Rico. Among for self-determination, and the Mar­ the movement thatJed to the birth of their best known crimes was the murder xist attitude toward the Palestine the Congress of Industrial Organiza­ four years ago of Carlos Muniz Varela, a Liberation Organization. 46 pages, tions (CIO), died in Los Angeles young Cuban member of the national com­ $1.25. March 4, at age 73. mittee of the Antonio Maceo Brigade. That Pollock was a lifelong unionist organization is made up of young people of and socialist. An article in a coming Cuban origi~ who support the normaliza­ Order from Pathfinder Press, 410 issue will describe his contribution to tion of relations between the United States West St., New York, N.Y. 10014. the workers movement, including the and Cuba. Please include 75 cents for postage central role he played in the historic Muiiiz also ran a travel agency that ar­ and handling. Toledo Auto-Lite strike of 1934. ranged trips to Cuba for the Cuban commu­ nity in Puerto Rico.

March 25, 1983 The Militant 19 -THE .GREAT SOCIETY------___;______

Just get back in line - Some tion site. "They will be given cre­ Semantics dep't - The Israeli Bon appetit! - The chance to executive couple who is success­ surplus butter distributed in dit for more butter," an official as­ government ordered the state-sub­ have lunch with Watergater G. fully coping after having their California's Sail Fernando Valley sured. sidized TV and radio to stop refer­ Gordon Liddy was :auctioned off combined income reduced from may have absorbed ammonia ring to "personalities in the PLO." for the benefit of the National $60,000 to $54,000. fumes and not be fit for human An official said the term was re­ Symphony Orchestra. This has served for "respectable persons, added appeal when you recall he not the leaders of international ter­ See, things aren't so bad- A was the feltow who overcame his Thought for the week - rorism." Like, for instance, the fear-of rats by parboiling and eat­ luxury New York condo has apart­ "Everyone suffers financially who personalities responsible for the ing one. ments starting at $575,000. The is unemployed, but the worst hurt carnage at the Beirut refugee triplexes are higher, but they in­ of all may be that which is felt by camps? Social note - CIA director clude seven baths, some of which the person who is toppled from a Harry William Casey enjoyed a round of are marble, with whirlpool baths position of some prestige and Palm Beach golf accompanied by Ring and bidets. A French count repor­ power. . . . The fall could easily two security aides toting machine tedly bought the top floor as a pre­ Touchy - The State Depart­ shatter his confidence and ability guns. sent for his spouse. They already ment now calls the Gls in El Sal­ to renew the fight for success consumption. It was suggested have a New York pad, but he vador "trainers." The old term beyond the point of mere subsis­ that any butter with an unusual wanted a nice place to sip drinks "advisers" was scrapped as re­ Sheer grit -Money magazine tence." Cleveland Plain smell be returned to the distribu- and watch the sunset. miniscent of Vietnam. devoted an article to a young Dealer.

-CALENDAR~------ARIZONA Donation: $2. Ausp: Militant Forum. For more Workers Local 600. Sun. , Mar. 20, 7:30p.m. 92 and Young Socialist Alliance. Translation to information call (617) 262-4621. 2120 Dorr. Donation: $2. Ausp: Militant Labor Spanish. Fri., March 18, 7:30p.m. 5811 N Tucson Forum. For more information call (419) 536- Broad. Donation: $2. Ausp: Militant Forum. Copper Workers Under Attack: What's 0383. For more information call (215) 927-4747. Happening With the Negotiations. Speaker: MICHIGAN Dan Fein, United Steelworkers of America Local 7508. Translation to Spanish. Thur., Detroit If You Love Tbis Planet. A showing of film re­ Working Class Solution to the Capitalist March 31, 7:30p.m. El Pueblo Neighborhood El Salvador: Revolution or Deatb. A film cently labeled propaganda by U.S. State De­ Crisis. Socialist Workers Campaign rally. Center, 101 W Irvington. Ausp: Young showing with discussion to follow. Translation partment. Presentation to follow. Fri., March Speakers: Bill Osteen, Socialist Workers Party Socialist Alliance. For more information call to Spanish. Sun., March 20, 7 p.m. 6404 25, 7:30 p.m. 2120 Dorr St. Donation: $2. candidate for mayor; Katy Karlin, Sam Farley, (602) 622-3880. Woodward Ave. Donation: $2. Ausp: Militant Ausp: Militant Labor Forum. For more infor­ and Mike Finley, SWP candidates for city coun­ Labor Forum. For more information call (313) mation call (419) 536-0383. cil. Translation to Spanish. Sat., March 26, 7 875-5322. . p.m. 5811 N Broad. Donation: $2. Ausp: SWP 1983 Campaign Committee. For more informa­ CALIFORNIA OREGON tion call (215) 927-4747. Oakland MISSOURI Portland Education is a Right. Speakers: Miguel za­ Kansas City Life in Cuba Today. Talk and slide show. Pittsburgh rate, Socialist Workers candidate for school dis­ Revolution Marches On: Nicaragua in 1983. Speaker: Bill Gaboury, professor of history at El Salvador Will Win: Stop Reagan's Dirty trict; Dr. Cecilia Arrington, chair, Ethnic Eyewitness report. Speaker: Marty Pettit, Southern Oregon State College, visited Cuba in War. Speakers: Ginny Hildebrand, Socialist Studies Department, Merit College; others. member, International Ladies Garment Work­ 1979, '81, and '82. Sun., March 20,7:30 p.m. Workers Party candidate for Pittsburgh city Sat., March 26, 7:30p.m. 2864 Telegraph Ave. ers Union Local. 131, Young Socialist Alliance; 711 NW Everett. Donation: $1.50. Ausp: Mili­ council, member, United Mine Workers of Donation: $2. Ausp: Militant Forum. For more others. Translation to Spanish. Sun., March 27, tant Bookstore Forum. For more information America; others. Sat., March 26, 7:30p.m. 141 information call (415) 763-3792. 8 p.m. 4715A Troost. Donation: $2. Ausp: Mil­ call (503) 222-7225. S Highland Ave., 3rd fl. Donation: $2.50. itant Labor Forum. For more information call Ausp: Militant Labor Forum and Young San Francisco (816) 753-0404. - Revolutionary Nicaragua Today. Talk and Socialist Alliance. For more information call What Difference Could a Revolution Make? slide show by Paul Freeman, Socialist Workers (412) 362-6767. Food and Fanning in the New Nicaragua. St. Louis Party, recently returned from study tour of Speaker: Joseph Collins, coauthor of What Dif­ Emergency Picket Line to Protest Escalation Nicaragua. Sun., March 27, 7:30p.m. 711 NW ference Could a Revolution Make? and Now We of U.S. Intervention in El Salvador. . Sat., Everett. Donation: $1.50. Ausp: Militant UTAH Can Speak. Translation to Spanish. Fri., March March 26, 12 noon. 815 Olive St. (near old Post Bookstore Forum. For more information call Price 18, 8 p.m. 3284 23rd St. (near Mission). Dona­ Office). Ausp: Latin America Solidarity Com­ (503) 222-7225. Forward Ever, Backward Never: Four Years tion: $2. Ausp: Militant Forum. For more infor­ mittee. For more information call (314) 726- of Grenada Revolution. Speaker: Richard mation call (415) 824-1992. 2393. Rathers, laid-off coal miner, member of PENNSYLVANIA Socialist Workers Party. Translation to Class Series: War in Central America: Why Socialist Workers Campaign Rally and Harrisburg Spanish. Sat., March 26, 7 p.m. 23 S Carbon Are They Fighting? Tues., March 22, 6 p.m. Grand Opening. Speakers: Helen Savio, SWP Nicaragua 1983: an Eyewitness Report. Ave. Donation: $2. Ausp: Militant Forum. For (class will be held in Spanish Sat., March 19, 4 candidate for Board of Education; Bob Allen, Speakers: Newton Brown and John Sislo, more information call (801) 637-6294. p.m.) What Is Socialism? Tues., March 29, 6 SWP candidate for alderman, 28th Ward. Sat., Socialist Workers Party members recently re­ p.m. (class will be held in Spanish Sat., March March 26; slideshow on Grenada, Cuba, and turned from Nicaragua. Translation to Spanish. Salt Lake City 26, 4 p.m.) 3284 23rd St. (near Mission). Ausp: Nicaragua, 6:30p.m.; rally, 7:30p.m. 3109 S Wed. , March 23, 7 p.m. 803 N 2nd St. Dona· Eyewitness Report From Occupied Pales­ Young Socialist Alliance. For more information Grand, #22, 2nd fl. Donation: $3. Ausp: tion: $1 .50. Ausp: Militant Labor Forum. For tine. Speakers: Georges Sayaad and Deborah call (415) 824-1992. Socialist Workers Campaign Committee. For more information call (717) 234-5052. Lee, members of Young Socialist Alliance Na­ more information call (314) 772-4410. tional Committee who spent January and Feb­ Is A Revolution Possible in the United Philadelphia ruary in Israel and the West Bank. Fri., March States? Speaker: Anibal Yanez, former editor~ The Revolution Marches On: Nicaragua 25, 7:30 p.m. 677 S. 700 E, 2nd fl. Donation: Perspectiva Mundial. Forum will be held in NEBRASKA 1983 -An Eyewitness Report. Speaker: Jose $2. Ausp: Militant Forum. For more informa­ Spanish with translation to English. Fri., March Lincoln Acevedo, member United Auto Workers Local tion call (801) 355-1124. 25, 8 p.m. 3284 23rd St. (near Mission). Dona­ War On Working People, Political Rights on tion: $2. Ausp: Foro de Perspectiva Mundial Trial. A socialist election campaign rally. and Young Socialist Alliance. For more infor­ Speakers: Michael Carper, Socialist Workers mation call (415) 824-1992. Party candidate for mayor of Lincoln; Stuart Cops raid Black home in Ala. Crome, national leader of the Young Socialist Alliance. Sat., March 19, 7:30 p.m. Malone Continued from back page for an unknown reason," the cops say.) INDIANA Community Center, 2032 U St. Donation: $2. For more information call (402) 475-8933 or young Christopher Taylor went outside to When uniformed cops arrived moments Indianapolis move a car that was blocking others from later the real brutality began. No Sale! Farmers Fight Back. Speakers: rep­ 464-2565. resentative, Indiana Farmers Union; Larry leaving. The entire family, from a grandmother Spaart, member COACT (Citizens Organiza­ Two white men in a car pulled up behind to small children, was forced to lie face­ tion Acting Together); Dave Young, Young NEW YORK him. One pulled a gun and said , "Come down in the mud outside, according to Socialist Alliance. Sat., March 19,7 p.m. .4850 Manhattan here , nigger." Freddy Fox. At least one was kicked by a N College Ave. Donation: $1.50. Ausp: Mili­ In Solidarity With the Peoples of Central Christopher put up his hands and said, cop, who said, "Get your suit dirty, nig­ tant Forum. For more information call (317) America and the Caribbean. Benefit Dance. "Please don't shoot." ger." 283-6149. Band: "EI Chinito." Native food. Sat., March When one of the whites grabbed Christo­ The Taylors have been severely beaten 19, 9 p.m. to 3 a.m. Casa Nicaragua, 19 W 21 pher, he broke and ran for the house, pan­ in jail, according to those who have visited St. Donation: $4. Ausp: Casa Nicaragua, An­ ic-stricken. them. Massey said he is a Vietnam veteran MASSACHUSETTS tonio Maceo Brigade. For more information call and "what I saw at the jail reminded me of (212) 243-2678. The whites pursued him, shooting . A Boston bullet struck Christopher in the hand. · combat in Vietnam." The Freedom Struggle in Southern Africa. He ran into the house , crying out that The Taylors were finally released from Speakers: Masilo Mabeta; African National Why Reagan Fears Grenada. A Panel. Trans­ two white men were shooting at him. jail March 9 after supporters posted an ex­ Congress, graduate student of political science lation to Spanish. Fri., March 25 , 7:30p.m. 79 Someone tried to shut and lock the door. orbitant $400,000 bond set by Judge Sally at Harvard; Ernest Harsch, author, South Af­ Leonard St. Donation: $2. Ausp: Militant Labor The two men kicked in the door and Greenshaw. rica: White Rule, Black Revolt and staff writer Forum. For more information call (212) 925- Sentiment at the defense rally was espe­ for Intercontinental Press. Sun. , March 27, 1668. went after Christopher with their guns 7:30 p.m. 510 Commonwealth Ave., 4th Fl. drawn. They were in plain clothes. Their cially hot against Mayor Emory Folmar car was unmarked. At no time had they and Police Chief Swindall. Folmar is a vir­ identified themselves as police. ulent right-winger whose attitude encour­ The Taylor family members inside sub­ ages police "to brutalize and terrorize Marxism dued and disarmed the two men. In the Black people," said Freddy Fox. Many and the Working Fanner omo scuffle that took place the whites sustained speakers voiced outrage at Swindall's Cleveland some injuries. slandering the Taylors as "animals." An Education for Socialists bulletin. In­ GM-Toyota Venture: What it Means for The Taylors are charged with robbery, State Representative Alvin Holmes told cludes "American Agriculture and the Auto Workers. Speaker: Elizabeth Ziers, defense attorney Troy Massey told the ral­ the crowd he had sent a telegram to Reagan Working Farmer," by Doug Jenness; member, Socialist Workers Party, United Auto Workers Local600. Sat. , March 26, 7:30p.m. ly, for taking away the guns of the men calling on the president to declare martial documents and speeches by Frederick 2230 Superior. Donation: $2. Ausp: Militant who broke into their home . They are law in Montgomery, suspend all local po­ Engels, V.I. Lenin, and Fidel Castro. 62 Labor Forum. For more information call (216) charged with kidnapping, he said, "for lice agencies, and send federal troops to pp., $2.50. 579-9369. holding those intruders on the couch while maintain order "until local officials see fit they [the Taylors!] called the police ." to provide equal protection to all citizens." Order from Pathfinder Press, 410 West (Police now say they have no records of Defense organizers announced that fi­ St., New York, N.Y. 10014. Please in­ Toledo GM-Toyota Venture: What it Means for radio communications or phone calls to po­ nancial contributions made out to the Tay­ clude $. 75 postage and handling. Auto Workers. Speaker: Elizabeth Ziers, lice headquarters for the night of February lor Defense Fund can be sent directly to the member, Socialist Workers Party, United Auto 27 . The tape mechanism "malfunctioned Central Bank in Montgomery.

.20 TheMiUiant March 25, 1983 New policies needed to fight steel bosses

Continued from back page (LMPT). This "innovation" introduced in Latinos, and women. idea is what got us this new contract. Top tion to local work rules, remain to be set­ the last contract tries to further in­ Layoffs have already severely weakened union officials have argued that higher tled. stitutionalize the idea that workers and boss­ affirmative action in the mills. Mike S~out , company profits will benefit workers. This One of these is the future of the "list 3" es have comnion interests and can work grievance committee member of Local new deal will improve profits. But that has units - those that do not produce steel or out on-the-job problems cooperatively. 1397 at U.S. 'Steel's Homestead Works, re­ nothing to do with improving the living raw materials to make steel (such as steel Under the new agreement the LMPTs will cently explained, "Anyone who was hired standards of steelworkers. supply warehouses) but have always been likely be used to try to further erode union in the mill in the last 5 or 10 years is prob­ A second point that has certainly become covered by the basic steel contract. The power on the job. ably going to lose their job. That includes clearer is the need for union democracy. new agreement calls for "an early review of An additional question that has received all the women, and the majority of the Steelworkers could defend our interests their special problems" before April 15. almost no mention the past few weeks is Blacks." · more effectively if the membership had the This double-talk means the employers how the new contract will affect the Con­ The new contract will deepen this. right to read, discuss and then vote on the want to impose an even worse contract on sent Decree. This is the agreement signed The problem of unemployment and jobs contract like the coal miners do. these workers. in 1974 that took some initial steps in over­ for the over 100,000 workers in basic steel Finally, another objective of rank-and­ The new contract maintains the "Labor coming the years of discrimination prac­ still laid off remains the number one chal­ file control should be a change in the Management Participation Teams ticed by the steelmakers against Blacks, lenge facing the union. No one has even union's political direction which currently tried to pretend that the new contract will flows from the top leadership's idea of help solve this. The loudly trumpeted cooperating with the bosses. · "economic recovery" of the past few weeks Every steelworker remembers President Harrisburg Tea01sters strike has resulted in some mills recalling a rela­ Lloyd McBride's appeals to vote for Dem­ tive handful of workers. But it will not get ocrats in last November's elections. But BY KAmERINE SOJOURNER how we work. Our jobs are really not com­ most people back to work anytime soon. can any one of us remember a single Dem­ HARRISBURG, Pa. .,...-- Teamsters parable to most others. Many of us report This challenge still requires an action ocrat or Republican who spoke out against Local 776 here has over 5,000 members for work at 6 a.m. or earlier, and don't get campaign by the labor movement to de­ this new contract that lowers our standard and 90 different contracts. One of these home until 10 p;m. Three hundred to 400 mand a massive program of public works; of living? The answer is no. The reason is contracts is with Central Storage and miles per day driving with dozens of stops a shorter work week with no cut in pay to simple. There were none. is not unusual." Transfer Co. On February 26, 131 Central spread the work around; and dual seniority There are no friends of labor in either Storage drivers, dock workers, and All the Teamsters I talked to stressed lists as a way to defend affmnativeaction capitalist party. Neither party speaks out mechanics went out on strike. that they bent over backwards to try to get for Blacks, Latinos, and women, who are . against the bosses' war on workers because along with Central Storage. "But," one told The three central issues · involved are a the last hired and first to be laid off. both support it. This Jatest example is just pay cut; the health, welfare, and pension me, "we're not going to let them bust us. further proof of how much we need our The company just pushed and pushed, until fund; and overtime provisions. Last April Rearm the union own political party - a labor party based the owner of Central Storage, Joe Garner, we had no choice but to strike." on the unions. pulled his company out of the Master On February 28, a picketer was hit from This will take a fight just as it will take a fight to stop the employers from imposing It is because a new direction for the Freight Agreement, which is the contract behind by a truck driven by John Vostock, union is needed so urgently that a discus­ negotiated by the Teamsters and the major . vice-president and general man~er of more concessions. Waging this battle suc­ cessfully requires a fundamental change in sion of perspectives is so important. This is trucking employers. He told workers at a Central Storage. A man who witnessed this true for steelworkers and the entire labor assault said, "Vostock saw Steve with his the perspective of the union. breakfast meeting he would negotiate sepa­ movement. Only a change in course can rately with them. "Since then," one back to the truck. He grit his teeth. His That is what much of the discussion defeat the new attacks on workers' rights member said, "he's made up rules on his eyes lit up. He accelerated and hit the man. among steelworkers today is really about. that are surely coming. whim. Everything has been done behind There were city police patrol cars all over Several questions are now posed more the back of the union." the place. They saw it. They didn't do a sharply. · thing. They didn't arrest Vostock. The GeoffMirelow itz is a steelworker on lay-off In April 1982, Garner began to impose One is the false idea that workers and from Bethlehem Steel's Sparrows Point owner, Joe Garner, was watching the "his" contract. Workers picked up their employers have common interests. That plant and a member ofUSWA Local 2609. checks one week and found their pay had whole thing from behind that fence." been cut by 97 cents per hour. During the At about 8:30 a.m. the same morning, current negotiations, Garner offered a 60- another picketer was hit by a Central Stor­ cent increase and then withdrew that. age truck. Again, nothing was done by the The wage cut was only the first of .the police. Fortunately, neither man was seri~ Just off the press! company's new mandates. Central Storage ously hurt. pays the health and welfare benefits pre­ Teamsters voiced their anger not only at Steelworkers Under Attack: mium for each Teamster. Management an­ the police, but at the role played by the How to fight back and defend jobs nounced that increases in the rates for the courts in this strike. The company got an fund would have to be paid for by the indi­ injunction limiting the number of pickets to by Geoff Mirelowitz, $.95, 40 pp. vidual workers. three at each entrance. Overtime provisions are the third major The Teamsters are picketing 24 hours a The bosses and their government are issue. The contract provisions have always day. Because of the court injunction limit­ pushing the line that only big conces­ said all work over 40 hours is overtime. ing the number actually in the line, many sions from steelworkers can "save" Central Storage now says that since they others stand across the street to show their the ailing steel industry- and work­ are involved in interstate commerce, over­ numbers. Several said they want the local ers' jobs. In this pamphlet, Mirel­ time pay is not mandatory, as a result of a issues resolved, and they want to go back owitz, a laid-off steelworker, answers federal law passed in 1981. Teamsters to the Master Freight Agreement. the employers' attempts to blame explained to me that a driver can work 66.4 Like most people who work for a living, workers for the economic crisis. He hours per week, and not draw one dime for deciding to strike is a difficult decision be­ outlines a fight-back course for the overtime. cause of the financial hardships it imposes. steelworkers' union and the entire The weekend of Thanksgiving, union These union members took that step, be­ labor movement. members were supposed to have two paid cause of Central Storage's insult to their holidays. The company declared a state of dignity and because of the threat to their Order from Pathfinder Press, 410 West St., emergency, abolished bids, and paid those union. As one man said, "There comes a New York, N.Y. 10014. Please include $.75 who worked straight time for the two days. time when people have to stand up for what for postage. One striker emphasized, "Tell people is right." · -_ IF YOU LIKE THIS PAPER, LOOK US UP------

Where to find the Socialist Workers Party, Gary: SWP, YSA, 3883 Broadway. Zip: NEW JERSEY: Newark: SWP, YSA, 11-A 16823. Tel: (814) 238-3296. Young Socialist Alliance, and socialist books 46409. Tel: (219) 884-9509. Indianapolis: Central Ave. Zip: 07102. Tel: (201) 643-3341 . RHODE ISLAND: Providence: YSA, P.O. and pamphl.!ts SWP, YSA, 4850 N. College. Zip: 46205. Tel: NEW MEXICO: Albuquerque: SWP, Box 261, Annex Station. Zip: 02901. (317) 283-6149. YSA, 1417 Central Ave. NE. Zip: 87106. Tel: TEXAS: Austin: YSA; c/o Mike Rose, 7409 ALABAMA: Birmingham: SWP, YSA, IOWA: Cedar Falls: YSA, c/o Jim Sprall, (505) 842-0954. Berkman Dr. Zip: 78752. Tel. (512) 452-3923. 205 18th St. S. Zip: 35233. Tel: (205) 323- 803 W. lith St. Zip: 50613. Des Moines: NEW YORK: Capital District (Schenec­ Dallas: SWP, YSA, 2817 Live Oak. Zip: 3079. YSA, P.O. Box 1165. Zip: 50311. tady): SWP, YSA, 323 State St. Zip: 12305. 75204. Tel: (214) 826-4711. Houston: SWP, ARIZONA: Phoenix: SWP, YSA, 611 E. KENTUCKY: Louisville: SWP, YSA, 809 Tel: (518) 374-1494. New York, Brooklyn: YSA, 4806 Almeda. Zip: 77004. Tel: (713) Indian School. Zip: 85012. Tel: (602) 274- E. Broadway. Zip: 40204. Tel: (502) 587-8418. SWP, YSA, 335 Atlantic Ave. Zip: 11 201. Tel: 522-8054. San Antonio: SWP, YSA, 337 W. 7399. Tucson: SWP, P.O. Box 2585. Zip: (212) 852-7922. New York, Manhattan: Josephine. Zip: 78212. Tel: (512) 736-9218. 85702. Tel: (602) 622-3880 or 882-4304. LOUSIANA: New Orleans: SWP, YSA, SWP, YSA, 79 Leonard. Zip: 10013. Tel: (212) UTAH: Price: SWP, YSA, 23 S. Carbon CALIFORNIA: Los Angeles: SWP, YSA, 3207 Dublin St. Zip: 70118. Tel: (504) 486- 226-8445. New York: City-wide SWP, YSA, Ave., Suite 19, P.O. Box 758. Zip: 84501. Tel: 2546 W. Pico Blvd. Zip: 90006. Tel: (213) 380- 8048. 79 Leonard. Zip: 10013. Tel: (212) 925-1668. (801) 637-6294. Salt Lake City: SWP, YSA, 9460. Oakland: SWP, YSA, 2864 Telegraph MARYLAND: Baltimore: SWP, YSA, 677 S. 7th East, 2nd Floor. Zip: 84102. Tel: Ave. Zip: 94609. Tel: (415) 763-3792. San 2913 Greenmount Ave. Zip: 21218. Tel: (301) NORTH CAROLINA: Piedmont: SWP, (801) 355-11 24. Diego: SWP, YSA, 1053 15th St. Zip: 92101. 235-0013. YSA, P.O. Box 1026, Greensboro. Zip: 27402. VIRGINIA: Tidewater Area (Newport Tel: (619) 234-4630. San Francisco: SWP, MASSACHUSETTS: Boston: SWP, YSA, Tel: (919) 723-3419. News): SWP, YSA, 5412 Jefferson Ave., Zip YSA, 3284 23rd St. Zip: 94110. Tel: (415) 824- 510 Commonwealth Ave., 4th. Floor. Zip: OHIO: Cincinnati: SWP, YSA, 4945 Pad­ 23605. Tel: (804) 380-0133. dock Rd. Zip: 45237. Tel: (513) 242-7161. 1992. San Jose: SWP, YSA, 461h Race St. Zip: 02215. Tel: (617) 262-4621. WASHINGTON, D.C.: SWP, YSA, 3106 95126. Tel: (408) 998-4007. Seaside: Pathfin­ MICHIGAN: Detroit: SWP, YSA, 6404 Cleveland: SWP, YSA, 2230 Superior. Zip: Mt. Pleasant St. NW. Zip: 20010. Tel: (202) der Books, 1043A Broadway, Seaside. Zip: Woodward Ave. Zip: 48202. Tel: (313) 875- 44114. Tel: (216) 579-9369. Toledo: SWP, 797-7699. Baltimore-Washington District: 93955. Tel: (408) 394-1855 . 5322. YSA, 2120 Dorr St. Zip: 43607. Tel: (419) 536- 2913 Greenmount Ave., Baltimore, Md. Zip: COLORADO: Denver: SWP, YSA, 126 MINNESOTA: Mesabi Iron Range: SWP, 0383. 21218. Tel: (301 ) 235-0013 . W. 12th Ave. Zip: 80204. Tel: (303) 534-8954. YSA, 112 Chestnut St., Virginia, Minn. 55792. OREGON: Portland: SWP, YSA, 711 NW WASHINGTON: Seattle: SWP, YSA, FLORIDA: Miami: SWP, YSA, 1237 NW Send mail to P.O. Box 1287. Zip: 55792. Tel: Everett. Zip: 97209. Tel: (503) 222-7225. 4868 Rainier Ave. South. Zip: 98118. Tel: 119th St., North Miami. Zip: 33167. Tel: (305) (218) 749-6327. Twin Cities: SWP, YSA, 508 PENNSYLVANIA: Edinboro: YSA, Edin­ (206) 723-5330. 769-3478. N. Snelling Ave., St. Paul. Zip: 55104. Tel: boro State College. Zip: 16444. Tel: (8 14) 734- WEST VIRGINIA: Charleston: SWP, GEORGIA: Atlanta: SWP, YSA, 504 Flat (612) 644-6325. 4415. Harrisburg: SWP, YSA, 803 N. 2nd St. YSA, 1584 A Washington St. East. Zip: 25311 . Shoals Ave. SE. Zip: 30316. Tel: (404) 577- MISSOURI: Kansas City: SWP, YSA, Zip: 17102. Tel: (717) 234-5052. Philadel­ Tel: (304) 345-3040. Morgantown: SWP, . 4065. 4715A Troost. Zip: 64110. Tel: (816) 753- phia: SWP, YSA, 581 1 N. Broad St. Zip: YSA, 957 S. University Ave. Zip: 26505. Tel: ILLINOIS: Chicago: SWP, YSA, 555 W. 0404. St. Louis: SWP, YSA, 3109 S. Grand, 19141. Tel: (215) 927-4747 or 927-4748. (304) 296-0055. Adams. Zip: 60606. Tel: (312) 559-9046. #22. Zip: 63116. Tel: (314) 772-4410. Pittsburgh: SWP, YSA, 141 S. Highland Ave. WISCONSIN: Milwaukee: SWP, YSA, INDIANA: Bloomington: YSA, Activities NEBRASKA: Lincoln: YSA, P.O. Box Zip: 15206. Tel: (412) 362-6767. State Col­ 4707 W. Lisbon Ave. Zip: 53208. Tel: (414) Desk, Indiana Memorial Union. Zip: 47405. 80238. Zip: 68501. Tel: (402) 475-8933. lege: YSA, P.O. Box 464, Bellefonte. Zip: 445-2076. -EDITORIALS------:"""---- EdUcation a right in revolutionary New stage in rights fight Grenada Continued from front page These rallies are also important to raise funds needed March 13 marked the fourth anniversary of the class political parties, and other organizations are to be to defray a portion of the expenses the SWP was forced revolution in Grenada, a Black, English-speaking is­ subjected to that kind of government interference, their to bear. PRDF is organizing this fund drive, which is ear­ land in the Caribbean (see page one story). One of the First Amendment rights of freedom of association - the marked for the legal costs incurred in this case. Raising major achievements since the workers and farmers right to organize against the bosses and governmenl the funds is not only an act of solidarity with the victim overthrew the U.S.-backed dictatorship there has policies- will be severely curtailed or eliminated. of this malicious court proceeding, but will help thwart been big strides forward in literacy and education. . These dangers have been pushed back by the trial deci­ one of the objectives of both Gelfand and the government The following are excerpts from a speech by Prime sion. Supporters of democratic rights can now push them -to harm the SWP by bleeding it financially. Solidariz­ Minister Maurice Bishop on July 2, 1979, explaining back still further. ing on this front is an important aspect of putting into the new government's education campaign, tying it to The Political Rights Defense Fund (PRDF), which has · practice the old slogan of the labor movement- "An in­ the new society the Grenadian people are trying to organized support for the SWP's fight in this case, is jury to one is an injury to all." build. The speech comes from Forward Ever!, availa­ holding rallies around the country to protest this court Part of the political campaign against this assault on ble from Pathfmder Press, 410 West St., New York, disruption of the SWP. Building these rallies now will democratic rights is the next stage of the fight in the court­ N.Y. 10014. The cost is $6.95. Please add 75 cents for help ·reach out to broad forces in the workers movement room. Attorneys .for the SWP will be asking the court to postage and handling. to explain the issues involved. Experience has shown that make Gelfand and his attorneys pay some of the costs these events can also be forums for publicizing and pro­ they have inflicted upon the SWP. Such a legal move will Perhaps the worst crime that colonialism left our coun­ testing other cases of attacks on democratic rights. help penalize Gelfand and his backers. To the extent this try, has indeed left all former colonies, is the education Mobilizing protest of the Gelfand case and continuing can be done, it will give second thoughts to anyone else system. This was so because the way in which that sys­ to gather statements of support for the SWP will help the contemplating similar action. tem developed, the way in which that system was used, political campaign to make 'it more difficult for future Those who would attack the democratic rights of Gelfands and federal judges to use the courts in this man­ working-class organizations should be put on notice that ner against the SWP or other organizations. they will be resisted, exposed and politically isolated. OUR REVOLUTIONARY Behind the Gelfand suit HERITAGE Alan Gelfand's suit was financed by the U.S. Workers SWP's alleged degeneration by charging that the SWP was to teach our people an attitude of self-hate, to get us League and carried out in collaboration with this outfit leadership had been taken over by government agents. to abandon our history, our culture, our values. To get us and its parent group in Britain, the Workers Revolution­ They never had a shred of proof, but used the to accept the principles of white superiority, to destroy ary Party of Gerry Healy. technique of the Big Lie, developed by Hitler and Stalin. our confidence, to stifle our creativity, to perpetuate in Decades ago, the grouping led by Healy was a Marxist By shouting their slanders loud and often enough, and by our society class privilege and class difference. organization. How did it degenerate into its present state? amassing "documents" that prove nothing, but all to­ The colonial masters recognised very early on that if Key to understanding this process was the Healyite re­ gether make a large pile, they hope to convince people you get a subject people to think like they do, to forget jection of the Cuban revolution in the early 1960s. Healy that there "must be something" to their slanders and lies. their own history and their own culture, to develop a sys­ and his grouping maintained that socialist revolutions The Gelfand suit was part of this slander campaign. tem of education that is going to have relevance to our were only possible if they were led by Trotskyist parties. Through it the Healyites have amassed more "docu­ outward needs and be almost entirely irrelevant to our in­ Since the Cuban revolutionary leadership was not ments" and "testimony." No matter that it all proves ternal needs, then they have already won the job of keep­ Trotskyist, the Healyites concluded that no revolution exactly nothing, it will make a thick, official-looking ing us in perpetual domination and exploitation. Our edu­ had taken place. Cuba remained capitalist and Castro was book, "Official Court Testimony." cational process, therefore, was used mainly as a tool of another Batista or Chiang Kai-shek. the ruling elite. In other words, when the living class struggle turned * * * It helped to teach us most of the negative attitudes and out different from the Healyite schema- they solved the The question of the Cuban revolution and its leader­ values that today we still see in certain sectors of our so­ contradiction by denying reality. ship remains a touchstone today. The extension of the ciety. Attitudes of racist beliefs, racism, priorities, and The Socialist Workers Party, by contrast, saw the Cuban revolution to Nicaragua and Grenada, the revolu­ chauvinist attitudes that make many of the men in our so­ Cuban revolution as of historic importance. Not only had tionary struggle in El Salvador and Central America in ciety look at the woman as being not an equal partner but the first socialist revolution in the Americas occurred, but general, has produced fresh divisions. The confrontation as being a tool for person.al use and enjoyment; an at­ a new leadership, Marxist and proletarian, had been between imperialism and the revolution is growing titude of narrow nationalism and of isolationism that has forged in the process. This augured well for overcoming sh:,uper day by day . The resulting pressur6 to get out of taught us to believe that each of us in each of the several the crisis of leadership of the working class on a world the line of fire bears down on the left in the United States Caribbean islands must always remain separate and scale in face of the betrayal of Social Democracy and the and the world. ·apart. Stalinist degeneration of the Communist International. Groups like the one led by Nahuel Moreno in Argen­ The sectarian stance of the Healyites · toward Cuba tina turned their backs on the Nicaraguan revolution. * * soon led tbem to sectarian positions on the Algerian rev­ Others, like the Spartacist League in the United States * olution and the colonial revolution in general, the Labor and the group headed by Pierre Lambert in France, recon­ It is easy for any government, it certainly will be easy Party · in Britain, the rise of revolutionary Black firmed their earlier sectarian stance toward Cuba in the for the People's Revolutionary Government, to proclaim nationalism represented by Malcolm X in the United case of Nicaragua. the principle of free education for all. And this we are of States, and on other questions. In the wake of the Nicaraguan revolution these groups course happy to do. But it is one thing to say free educa­ Their rapid political degeneration proved that the have launched sharp attacks on the SWP for its support of tion, it is another thing to say how we are going to pay for Cuban question was indeed a touchstone. Coming down the Nicaraguan and Grenadian revolutions and their that free education. Where is the money going to come ·on the wrong side of the barricades during a proletarian leaderships. They charge that the SWP leadership has from? Where are the resources going to come from that revolution cannot but derail a party that claims to speak betrayed the ideals and program of the founders of the we are certainly going to need to run schools, train teach­ for the interests of the working class. By not correcting SWP. ers better, provide a more relevant form of education, their sectarian position on the Cuban revolution and its As a consequence, the Healyites have tailored their and all free of cost? leadership, but rather maintaining it over the years, the case against the SWP to echo such charges coming from What I think that points to, is that one of the very im­ Healyites were led further and further from Marxism. these quarters. portant lessons that we are going to have to draw - and From the early 1960s on; the Healyites have covered The Healyite campaign against the S\YP has provided, one of the very important things that we are going to have up their break from Marxism with a vociferous campaign in the Gelfand suit, an opening for government harass­ to embark on as we try to open up the school system to against the Socialist Workers Party. This campaign took ment of the SWP. Its roots lie in the Healyites' break the economically poor and underprivileged in our society a new twist in the mid-1970s, when they explained the from Marxism. - is that we are going to have to learn the lesson that we will have to take our schools to the people. We are going to depend to some extent on a system of volunteers who will be willing to go out into the countryside, where the most serious and endemic problems of illiteracy exist, Let Hortensia. Allende speak and try to train our people. * * * The U.S. government has denied a visa to enter this Allende· denied she was an official of the council, and The whole question of the curriculum is going to be a country to Hortensia Bussi de Allende, widow of the said she belongs to no political party. key one. A curriculum that is geared to developing a new former president of Chile. The real reasons for the ban on Allende lie elsewhere. philosophy, that is going to stress the important question She had been invited to speak before church groups by For one thing, the U.S. government wants to reestablish of self-reliance, the important question of genuine inde­ the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco, Stan­ arms sales to the murderous Chilean dictatorship. To do pendence, that is going to look at us as we in fact are, as ford University, and the Northern California Ecumenical that requires certifying that there are improvements in a small, poor, overexploited form of colonial Third Council about the Chilean government's violations of the Chilean government's brutal human rights abuses. World country and what that means in practice for our fu­ human rights. Allende's visit, with the truth she would tell, would not ture, that is going to try to begin to raise national con­ The State Department denied the visa through the U.S. help convince U.S. working people that it is in their in­ sciousness, that is going to stress the importance of na­ embassy in Mexico City, where Allende lives. A terests to send arms to Chile. tional unity, that will stress the importance of developing government spokesman, citing the Immigration and an approach, an attitude that says on the one hand all of Naturalization Act, said her "e_ntry to make various pub­ Hortensia Allende's husband, Salvador Allende, was us must work harder, all of us must produce more, but lic appearances and speeches has been determined to be murdered in the U.S.-sponsored right-wing coup in says on the other hand when we work harder and when 1973, in which thousands peasants, students, prejudicial to U.S. interests." of~orkers, we produce more the benefits of that production and that The State Department spokesman said the visa was de­ and political activists were slain. sort of work must come back to all of us collectively. nied because the widow is a "highly placed and active Having Allende tour this country would be a living re­ That sort of thinking we are going to have to develop. member of the World Peace Council, which has a direct minder of what the U.S. government is willing to do in A participatory democracy that seeks to involve all of our political affiliation with the Communist Party of the the name of freedom - and thus would indeed be "pre­ people: workers, farmers, fishermen, youths, students, Soviet Union." judicial" to the "interests" served by the U.S. govern­ '-women; all of them on a regular ongoing basis in making The government has been red-baiting the council for ment. That is why every working person and supporter of decisions and coming up with solutions for the problems some months as part of Washington's efforts to divide democratic rights should condemn the denial of our right that we have identified as being the real problems that are and discredit opponents of U.S. military intervention. to hear Hortensia Allende. holding us back.

22 The Militant March 25, 1983 St. Patrick's Day parade: a blow to British rule BY WILL REISSNER New York's St. Patrick's Day parade- the largest in the world - has been held every year since 1774, but never has so, much controversy surrounded the event as this year. Senator Daniel Moynihan, New York former governor Hugh Carey, and the. Irish government have all stated they will have nothing to do with the parade this year. The Pentagon has announced that no military bands will march. And the New York archdiocese has pulled parochial school marching bands out too. Cardinal Cooke and Senator Edward Kennedy ex­ pressed their shock and dismay at how the parade is shap­ ing up. All the fuss is focused on the landslide election of Michael Flannery as grand marshal of this year's March ·AS I SEE IT

17 parade. Flannery, 81 , is a .leader of Irish Northern Aid, an organization that raises money for the families of political prisoners in British jails in Northern Ireland. He is also an avowed supporter of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in which he served in the 1920s. He did time in a British prison, was tortured there, and went on a hunger Michael Flannery, grand marshal of New York St. Patrick's Day parade and supporter of freedom fight of Irish strike. Republican Army. Last November, Flannery and four other Irish-Amer­ icans were acquitted in federal court on charges of sup­ plying weapons to the IRA. Moynihan and the others all claim they support the In response to all these attacks, a few people with a eventual goal of Irish freedom and reunification. "We few weapons began protecting the nationalist com­ The stir over Flannery's election has been front-page support your goals but not your violent methods," they munities. That was how the present phase of armed resis­ news in New York for weeks. But its impact has reached say. tance began. further. . But, who is responsible for the violence in Ireland? The government of the south of Ireland, whose main. The March 7 Washington Post featured an editorial job is to promote the vast interests of ·British capitalists calling on New Yorkers (few of whom have ever seen In 1918, in the last election in Ireland before the there, and Democratic Party politicians like Moynihan, British-engineered partition, 85 percent of the Irish that paper in their lives) to rebuff Flannery. "If enough Carey, and Kennedy, have never done anything concrete bystanders tum their backs on Mr. Flannery as he struts people voted - peacefully and democratically - for the to further Irish freedom and unification. candidates of Sinn Fein, the party of Irish independence. up Fifth Avenue," the Washington editors wrote, But as the freedom struggle in Northern Ireland inten­ All of Ireland was still a British colony at. that time. "perhaps he and his allies will begin to understand that sifies, it becomes harder and harder for them to cover up terrorists have few friends here." The Sinn Fein representatives refused to take their their real positions behind platitudes about support for seats in the British parliament. They went instead to Dub­ eventual independence. The Wall Street Journal carried an article from Dublin lin, where they formed an Irish parliament to negotiate When the chips were down, in the hunger strike and in in which Ireland's prime minister bemoans Flannery's their country's independence. election. the parade, they all came down on the side of the British The British government responded to the election by colonial rulers. Flannery's election was even big news on Australian sending a gunboat to shell Dublin and by arresting every Michael Flannery and the St. Patrick's Day marchers, television! member of that parliament they could get their hands on. on the other hand, stand proudly with the oppressed and The war for independence began only after the British Senator Moynihan says he won't march this year be­ embattled nationalist population of Northern Ireland. government showed it would not honor the results of the cause he opposes violence to achi.eve political ends. The refusal by Moynihan and his ilk to march in this election and grant Ireland its freedom. This is the same Moynihan who does not bat an year's parade is the best service they have ever rendered eyelash voting for a war budget of more than $200 billion The current phase of the struggle in the British-ruled the Irish freedom struggle. It's high time they showed north oflreland began in 1968, inspired by the civil rights per year. their true colors and got out of the way. protests of Black people in the United States. This is the same Moynihan who was a proud member As John Tracey, a leader of the Ancient Order of of Richard Nixon's cabinet at the height of the U.S. war Catholics in the north staged peaceful, nonviolent Hibernians, put it in a letter in the March 15 New York against Vietnam. marches and rallies calling for an end to discrimination in Times, "this year and in the future you are going to see a This is the same Moynihan who ardently cheered on housing, education, employment, and voting. parade that, while perhaps shorter, is more ethnic, more the British fleet that reconquered the Malvinas Islands In response, pro-British Loyalist mobs - led by the political and less under the control of the Catholic from Argentina. uniformed forces of "law and order" - attacked these Church, Irish and American political hacks and those In 1981 a hunger strike took the lives of Bobby Sands peaceful demonstrations and even burned down whole Irish who think they have it made and don't want to rock and nine other young freedom fighters in British prisons Catholic neighborhoods in Belfast. the boat." in Northern Ireland. Moynihan, Carey, Cardinal Cooke, On Bloody Sunday - January 30, 1972 - British Kevin Cassidy, a Belfast native who owns a Bronx Kennedy, and the Irish government never lifted a finger paratroopers opened fire on a peaceful civil rights march tavern, put it another way: "If Moynihan came in here, I to help save the lives of the hunger strikers. in Derry, killing 13 demonstrators. wouldn't serve him." - LETTERS------SJ.DtER! Pol Pot's crimes The Lord giveth . . . get away from the hustle and bus­ The March 11 Militant con­ "We intend to be good stewards tle." FmtiD tained two letters questioning its with God's money," so claimed Just ten weeks before the pur­ coverage of the murderous crimes Jim Bakker, president of the PTL chase of the condo, Bakker took --CENTERt of the Pol Pot regime in Kampu­ Club, a Christian ministry. Bakker more than five minutes of air time chea. Both cited Noam Chomsky is one of those television evange­ to read a list of PTL's overdue ac­ and Edward Herman's joint stu­ lists with waxed hair and the pastel counts. That day he closed the dies to argue that the toll of kill­ double-knit suits. Bakker and his printing division and laid off 12 ings under Pol Pot has been great­ wife, Tammy, preach the Lord's people. Two days later another 87 ly exaggerated by the mainstream word on their talk-show format full-time employees were laid off, media, as well as by the govern­ program shown daily in most of the results of "cost efficiency stu­ ments of Vietnam and Kampu­ the 200 major U.S. markets. dies." 00 lXlllHarry Belafonte and Mi­ the Guardian: "I - and I stress I rolina. chael Manley talk about Manley's am speaking only for myself and new book, Jamaica: Struggle in not necessarily for Noam On Oct. 29, 1982, a $375,000 the Periphery. again the press couldn't be relied hands in disgust? We must con­ Chomsky - think the Vietnamese ocean front condominium Belafonte said the book should upon to tell the truth. tinue to struggle until you here and behavior now appears to be much was purchased , for use by PTL not only be read by those at the Michael Manley opposed U.S. we there can find an answer." more reasonable than we thought President Bakker, his wife, and meeting, but should be passed on · war policy in Central America and Wells Todd when we were writing in 1979. I two children. The condo on Flori­ because the facts of what hap­ the Caribbean. He said Nicaragua New York, New York would also like to say that we da's Gold Coast features floor to pened in Jamaica can't be found in was putting up a gallant fight probably underestimated the vio­ ceiling mirrors in the hallways, the U.S. press. against U.S. -backed forces in lence of Pol Pot. . . . I would The letters column is an open living and bedrooms. A.T. Law­ He went on to speak about the Honduras and that they will con­ still say that there was a lot of cyn­ forum for all viewpoints on sub­ ing, a member of the board of di­ liberation struggles going on in tinue to fight to defend the revolu­ jects of general interest to our ical manipulation of the Western rectors, explained the board ap­ media." Central America and the Caribbe­ tion. readers. Please keep your letters proved the purchase last year so an and how the U.S. government Manley closed by telling the au­ brief. Where necessary they will the Bakkers could "have a place in is pumping millions of dollars into dience: "History repeats itself. Are be abridged. Please indicate if G.K. Newey Florida where they can go and rest the right-wing government of El you going to be part of a struggle you prefer that your initials be Hoboken, New Jersey for a while. They go down there to Salvador. He explained that once or are you going to throw up your used rather than your full name.

March 25, 1983 The Militant 23 THE MILITANT Storm-trooper cops raid Black home; Alabama mass rally demands justice

BY ANDY ROSE when Black women and children could be Eleven members of the Taylor family­ Annie Bell.Taylor, mother or grandmother MONTGOMERY, Ala. - Chants of beaten by racist storm troopers." including several who are members of the of most of those charged. Most of the men "Fired up!" rocked Lilly Baptist Church He brought the crowd to its feet, cheer­ United Auto Workers union- are charged are auto workers or former auto workers. here · March 7 as more than 1 ,000 angry ing, when he said that "there are things that with kidnapping, robbery, and attempted Nearly all are active church people. Blacks rallied in defense of the Taylor fam­ Black people . in 1983 will never take murder of two police officers. Lurid news" After the funeral, the mourners gathered ily and against police brutality. again!" paper headlines claim that the family "tor­ at a home in a rural Black area. Hundreds of people who couldn't jam The mass meeting was organized by a tured" the officers on the night of February Shortly . before midnight that evening, into the church filled the vestibule and broad array of civil rights groups that have 27. stood outside at the doors to hear. formed the Committee for the Taylor Fami­ Police Chief Charles Swindall has called Continued on Page 20 The Montgomery Black community "is ly Defense. the Taylors "wild animals that had their tired of being abused, harassed, and ac­ Freddy Fox, president of Operation M­ prey on the ground." cused of wrongdoings we didn't commit," p ACT (Movement for Positive Action in Montgomery Blacks "see the police ver­ UAW members said Theresa James, president of the Alaba- the Community), is chairman of the Com­ sion as lies," said Fox. According to attor­ ' ma Improvement Association. "We are mittee for the Taylor Family Defense. He neys and the defense committee for the protest frame-up tired, and we are here to fight." told the Militant the police attack on the family, this is what happened: Noted civil rights attorney J. L. Chesnutt Taylors was the "final straw" of brutality Members of the Taylor family from in Alabama declared that "Montgomery has .come full and cop terror heaped on Montgomery Warren, Ohio, and Pontiac, Michigan, had circle and returned to the shameful days Blacks. come to Montgomery for the funeral of BY LIZ ZIERS DETROIT - Four of the Blacks facing a VICious frame-up in Alabama (see above story) work in the General Motors truck and coach plant in Pontiac, Michigan. They are members of United Auto Workers Local594. When news reached Pontiac of the arrest of John Kennedy, Willie Taylor, and two of Taylor's sons, their coworkers were shocked. The frame-up has been a big discussion in the GM plant, among both Black and white workers. On March 13 a rally of 1,000 people took place in Pontiac in de­ fense of the Taylor family. A fund-raising disco is slated for March 25 at the Main Event Restau­ rant, Pontiac Silver Dome, at 9 p.m. Money raised will be used to aid the March 7 rally at Lilly Baptist Church in Montgomery demands freedom for Taylor family - framed up after police attacked defense effort. them. New policies needed to fight steel bosses

BY GEOFF MIRELOWITZ signed, two Local 6860 meetings drew 350 These local negotiations could lead to from General Motors as well as the steel A lot of steelworkers are angry_about the workers. Virtually everyone signed a peti­ "fundamental reforms in how work is or­ corporations, 63 USWA presidents - March l concession contract imposed on tion at the door calling for the member­ ganized." The article says tlie union more than 25 percent __:_ voted against the them by the Big Seven steel companies. ship's right to ratify the contract. Over the agreed, for the first time, to negotiate the contract. This included most presidents The 41-month deal cut wages immediately years this has been an important issue in combination of craft jobs. In exchange the from the iron ore locals and a number of by $1 .25 an hour and includes many other the USWA . Local President Stan Daniels companies pledged "good faith" in giving those from very big locals such as 2609 and talCeaways. urged a renewed fight to win this right. new in-plant construction to USWA craft 2610 at Sparrows Point. At local meetings of the United Steel­ workers rather than "contracting out" to What might have happened if the union workers of America (USWA) and on the Companies want more outside contractors who pay their ~mploy­ leaders had hung tough a little longer? job a big discussion is going on: Many But steelworkers aren't the only ones ees less than USWA members. Could a better contract have been won? workers are beginning to think about what dissatisfied with the new contract. The Explaining this provision in the contract, Would the companies have forced a strike? union staffman Sam Cameos said, "We it will take to rearm the union with a per­ steel companies and their mouthpieces No one knows the answers of course. But a spective and strategy that can defend steel­ aren't satisfied either. Why? Because they want to stop this wild onslaught on reduc­ story from . the Inland mill makes an in­ ing jobs . . . in an organized, directed workers' interests. say workers didn't give up enough! teresting point. Adrienne Kaplan, a member of USWA In an editorial titled, "A Modest Deal in way." Local 1010 in East Chicago, Indiana, re­ But that won't be the result. Steelworker Jesse Smith reports that the Steel" the March 4 New York Times com­ night the agreement was signed a few ports that workers at Inland Steel are furi­ plained, "the most notable aspect of the Job combinations will increase because ous about the loss of one vacation week the companies will be emboldened to try to workers on his electrical crew calculated new contract is how little the unions con­ that they would have to go on strike for this year. Despite layoffs, many workers at ceded." do so in the crafts and elsewhere. Inland have been forced to work overtime. Job elimination will increase as the em­ three months to lose as much money as it is The March 14 Business Week reports estimated the new contract will cost them. The week's vacation will be sorely missed. that "critics say the company negotiators ployers introduce new steelmaking technology. These workers did not look forward to a Joey Rothenberg told the Militant that compromised too much on their previous Contracting out will continue. Relying strike in August. But they also recognize many workers at Bethlehem Steel's Spar­ position. One steel analyst describes the on company "good faith" to stop this is like the price they paid for the union official­ rows Point mill outside Baltimore are cost savings as 'anemic.'" angry that the contract was reopened before hiring a fox to guard the chicken coop. dom giving in without a fight. Augiist, when it was due to expire. "All of Steelworkers may find this hard to be­ Furthermore, all of this is bound to lead They may have also been thinking about a sudden," she said, "you find out from the lieve. After all, many workers have spent .to new attacks on job safety. the Canadian Chrysler strike last fall - the newspaper that you're making $50 or $60 the past few weeks trying to figure out how one the media said the workers couldn't less a week." to make ends meet with about $4,000 a Fight not over win because the company would go bank­ Media hype about "high wages" angers year less. It's clear that the steelmakers are not rupt first. That scare tactic didn't stop the many steelworkers. At U.S. Steel's But hard to believe or not, these views finished in their effort to take advantage of strike and the result was a wage increase Duquesne mill David Suber told a reporter, are not to be laughed at. They signal one the antilabor climate that the employers and a better contract for all Chrysler work­ ''They're saying steelworkers are overpaid. sure thing: the employers are deadly seri­ and the government have tried to create. ers. (And the company still showed a profit Well don't think for one minute that it's not ous about going after even more conces­ The auto and railroad bosses imposed big for 1982:) hell over there," he said pointing to the sions. changes in work rules and the steel com­ mill. Business Week spells it out in their arti­ panies want them too. Whether they get What next? cle, "Steel's big labor savings are still Steelworkers are also more acutely them depends a great deal on steelworkers. aware of the need for union democracy ahead." While crying about the size of the However, the new steel contract is now posed by the fact that we don't have the wage giveback, they write that the con­ Twice last year, in August and a reality, as slashed paychecks and can­ right to vote on our contract. tract "also enables the companies to con­ November, rank-and-file pressure led the celled vacations confirm. This is a serious Dave Salner from Local 6860 at Eveleth tinue negotiating staffing levels in the local union presidents who make up the setback to steelworkers fighting to defend Taconite on Minnesota's Iron Range re­ plants and - with the approval of USW Basic Steel Industry Conference (BSIC) to our standard of living, but it dOesn't end ports this has become a bigger topic of dis­ leaders - to win greater cost savings by reject take back contracts. the fight. Many important issues, in addi- cussion. A few days after the deal was combining and eliminating jobs." Even this time around, despite pressure Continued on Page 21

24 The Militant March 25, 1983